A timely reminder by Facebook. A post from years ago, but all the more relevant now.

When one prays for love, God imbues not fuzzy warm feelings in one but opportunities to create love.
When one prays for strength, God gives not inner steel but opportunities to grow in strength.
Prayers are answered in opportunities, oftentimes disguised as difficulties.

Can we look at this pandemic and see it as an opportunity? As a prayer answered that’s disguised as a difficulty? It’s likely a stretch if you asked anyone who got infected and nearly died from it. But let’s suspend judgement for a bit, and let go of any preconceived notions of how things should be, to how it could be. 

What if this pandemic was a prayer answered? What prayer would that be?

A prayer for people to slow down. Consume less. Spend more time with your kids, parents, or spouse. Build better relationships. Care for each other. Help one another out more. To put into perspective, all the things and goals we chase everyday. To see anew, hear, feel, sense the sounds of birds singing. To pollute less, commute less, travel less, and allow our natural ecosystems to regenerate more. 

What if there’s an opportunity in the difficulty that is COVID-19? A blessing in disguise?

An opportunity that is to learn new skills while staying home. To build that side hustle that you always wanted to build. To see how the people who work in “essential services” are saving our asses right now, having to brave infection by heading out everyday, and yet are compensated the least. To finally pack that room, attic or storeroom you had always left it to tomorrow. To finally appreciate being able to just go out, to a park, and take in air, the quiet, and sky. To be grateful that we have a modern cave to protect against a very modern predator—the virus—while others are homeless. 

When we try to see what we can profit from in this pandemic, it is indeed “opportunities to create love…to grow in strength.”

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