No One Living Has Ever Lived through a Pandemic, You’re Doing Great

She has done a beautiful thing to me. Matthew 26:10b NIV

Earlier this week, I was talking with a college student who is following the social distance mandate to a T. She has been home since before spring break. And she also confessed to me that school is not going well. How does one focus on assignments when the world is upside down? I could see guilt on her face as we FaceTimed. (Is that correct English, FaceTimed?)

I assured her that it’s okay if she’s struggling with school. “There is no right or wrong in a pandemic,” I assured her. Then I clarified, “As long as you’re not hurting someone or yourself.” She chuckled and knew what I meant. I encouraged her, “It’s okay.”

This last year has been full of transition for me and one of the great lessons I learned is that it’s okay to not be perfect at everything. It’s okay to let some things go and even to fail at something. It’s okay.

As we talked, I realized that maybe you need to hear that too. It’s okay if you are not living up to your “shoulds.” Everyone has different shoulds they live by. I should

• clean my house every week.
• make dinner every night.
• cook 3 meals a day and provide healthy Pinterest-worthy snacks, now that the kids are home all day.
• exercise every day.
• read two bedtime stories to my kids.
• limit the amount of Netflix I watch
• wear work clothes even when working from home rather than yoga pants. And forget about wearing slippers all day!

If you have missed a should or two, give yourself a break. No one living has ever lived through a pandemic. You’re not going to do it perfectly and that’s okay. Hear me, “It’s okay!!!!!!! And you’re doing great!”

You are doing great! When you feel guilt wash over you remember my wise words…you’re doing great. If you have dirty dishes in your sink, it’s okay. If you are taking a shower at 5 p.m., you’re doing great. If the only school work you did with your child is flash cards, you’re doing great. The last thing we all need right now is guilt and condemnation.

How about some friendly advice?

So here’s a little friendly advice: Forget the word should. Throw it away. Flush it down the toilet. Burn it in your fire pit. I mean completely destroy it. Eliminate it from your vocabulary. And instead replace it with, “It’s okay.”

Have you read the article that has been circling the internet about how we are corporately grieving by Scott Berinato? If not, read it by clicking here. I couldn’t agree more. We are grieving. And we all grieve a little differently. Everyone’s grief is unique, just like your fingerprints. And you know what? That’s okay.

Another piece of advice I’d like to share with you: give yourself grace. If Jesus can extend grace to us, then we can too. We are not called to live cookie cutter perfect lives. We are called to follow Him. Friend, when you miss it, run to Him.

Ask Him what plans He has for you during this time in history. Maybe, He just wants to spend a little more time with you. Or maybe He wants to show you how to slow your pace. Maybe He’s inviting you into letting some things go. And maybe this is the opportunity to sit at His feet and worship Him like Mary did in Matthew 26.

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

When the disciples saw this, they were indignant, “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Aware of this Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.”

He goes on the explain that she is preparing Him for burial. Just a few short days later, as the Roman soldiers were nailing His body to the cross, the aroma of that perfume filled their nostrils.

This week is Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. That too was a crazy time in history. Mary had just a few days before watched her brother get sick and die. She had felt disappointment because she had called for Jesus to come and He didn’t show up.

When He finally decided to show up, it was too late. But then, the unimaginable happened…Jesus raised her brother from the dead after four days. I wrote about this last week, click here to read it. I don’t usually write about the same event in scripture two weeks in a row, but I believe God wants to highlight this for us at this time.

The events that followed were enough to shake anyone’s faith. Jesus was arrested, that’s tomorrow, Thursday, or known to many as Maundy Thursday. Friday morning, at 9 a.m. He was nailed to the cross and by that afternoon, He died.

Grief, fear, and doubt made their way into the hearts and minds of the disciples, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. How? Why? What next? The disciples hid together until early Sunday morning. Sunday morning, the stone was rolled away, and the Savior of the world breathed life into His body. In that single act, He conquered death already having defeated sin.

And that, my friends, is the same Jesus who is ready to meet you right where you are. He is inviting you and me into a sweet relationship with Him. He is calling to us, “Come to me.”

She has done a beautiful thing to me. For years now, these eight words have challenged me. They have called to me. You see, I want to do a beautiful thing to Him. And I think the invitation is there for us. Walk with Him and do a beautiful thing.

It starts with the gift of repentance. Following Jesus isn’t just believing He is the Son of God, the Savior of the World, it’s also repenting. I call repentance a gift because Jesus gives us the gift, the opportunity, to live a transformed life by repenting from the areas in our lives where we have missed the mark, where we have believed our ways are better than God’s ways.

To return to where I started this post…get rid of the shoulds. Instead, look to Jesus to show you the beautiful things we can do. That may look different for each one of us. It may be sitting on your back porch observing the way the bee pollinates the flowers in your backyard which causes you to marvel at how perfect God’s creation is. Possibly meditating on His Word in the early morning hours before the world is awake. Or finding a way to bless your neighbor who is a nurse at the hospital just down the street. Perhaps calling a friend whose husband was just diagnosed with COVID-19.

Rather than checking off things on your “to-do should list”, ask the Holy Spirit what plans He has for you today. Listen. Act. In so doing, we worship the Risen King. What are the beautiful things He is inviting you into?

The disciples thought Mary should have sold that bottle of perfume. But they were wrong. Don’t listen to the voices you may hear about what you should do. Listen to the loving words of Jesus.

*Stop the Lies: 30 Days to Freedom, my latest book, is available on Amazon. Click here to purchase your copy and a copy for a friend.