I was at an emergency meeting earlier this week and Jiji, our COO, gave a great exhortation. (This was before the enhanced community quarantine.) Let’s be more lenient with one another, let’s leave room for mistakes and work together to make things better. Let’s stand together at this time. We need to be one at this time, as we face something we never planned.

It was indeed a good reminder for such a time as this. We are in the middle of a crisis, the COVID-19 crisis. The situation is intense, difficult, and troublesome, to say the least. There are news items that bombard us left and right, both accurate and fake. With the blessing that social media is, we find too much information could sometimes be challenging in a way. Everyone has a voice and almost everyone has something to share.

We will find ourselves, more and more, seeing things online that are not to our liking. Whether things the government is doing or not doing for that matter, things our “friends” post on social media that seem crass and uncaring. There will be posts that seem extreme or lacking in faith, posts that seem overly fanatic and cut off from reality. All depending on where we’re coming from. And that is the reality. We all have different backgrounds that will dictate how we handle this crisis that we face.

We are all shaken. That is a certainty. Whatever it is we are holding on to, our foundations will be tested. The Bible talks about the removal of things that can be shaken so that what will remain cannot be shaken. (Hebrews 12:27) At a crisis such as this, it is an apt time to assess where our foundations lie. What are the things we hold on to? Do we have an anchor, when fear engulfs each one of us? Or, do they easily crumble and leave us shaking and grasping for anything else to hold on to and everyone else to blame?

A crisis like this is an opportune time to take stock of our values, our beliefs, and everything we hold dear. It is a great time to realign ourselves with the truth. The unshakeable truth. The Bible talks about a kingdom that cannot be shaken. (Hebrews 12:28) Yes, we live in perilous times, but there is also the promise that can anchor us at a time like this. There is a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. A God who gives strength in times of weakness. A God who gives hope when fear is prevalent. The only God who can sustain us at a time like this. So we ourselves could bring help and hope to the people around us.

May this time of shaking bring out the best in each one of us.