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SPECIAL POST INSPIRED BY COVID-19 CIRCUMSTANCES AND REALITIES
My health is a wreck. I have another perfect storm of symptoms hindering me from living life as I would’ve liked. No, I don’t have COVID-19, but that novel virus has complicated my efforts to seek treatment or find answers regarding what is going on in my body.

Strange health issues are not new to me. In 2009, my digestive and immune systems were turned inside out, upside down, and have never been the same. Adjusting to that new normal took time, but is so much a part of my daily routine that I don’t let it phase me anymore—or I at least don’t let it stop me from being who I am and doing what I feel that God has called me to do.

Having lived in Venezuela, I have experienced shortages of food, scarcity of goods, isolation for safety, lockdowns, and other uncertainties. That aspect of new normal, at the time, created tremendous reverse culture shock when I returned to the U.S. finding a dozen different types of ketchup and forty types of bread (before I ended up gluten intolerant in 2009).

While on the phone with a friend today, diligently practicing social distancing, but two extroverts struggling with social isolation, I had a meltdown and a revelation.
1. Everyone’s longing to “get back to normal” will never be “normal” as we once knew it.
2. Many of us who have navigated a “new normal” in the past know the pain, the agony, the grief, the challenge, and the extra grace in the transition that all come with the adjustment.
3. My previous and current health issues, my experience in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, may trigger PTSD type symptoms, fears, and exhaustion....
4. BUT God is not surprised by any of this. He is still sovereign. His power is made perfect in weakness. He’s got this. And I can trust Him.
5. God gives us permission and space to lament. Don’t believe me? Just read the Psalms!

Some may find these words ironic in the midst of the publication of a video series on being Victorious and Joyful in Battle. Suffice it to say that I have lived through a few battles (most of which don’t bear mentioning here). With greater authority as someone who is currently in the trenches, I invite you into the acknowledgement of the trenches of the battle in order that we might together declare victory with the King.

Love, a fellow warrior and Iron Rose Sister
M.

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Written by Rosa Perez, volunteer for Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Little Rock, AR.

As human beings, we have been created to connect with each other. Our existence pretty much depends on the relationship we make with one another. We can’t live isolated, otherwise, we could die. Therefore, we become part of something bigger than ourselves. We become part of a group in which we usually contribute. We become participants since we have gifts or abilities to offer. In our society, some of the groups that we know are schools, universities, and private or public businesses. Sadly, our society has composed these groups in a different way where people’s gifts are divided differently than what Jesus has taught us. We have divided people’s roles in levels of importance. Some roles are placed higher than others. For example, the role of the CEO is more important than the guard that opens and closes the door of the company. In our society, we don’t honor the small parts that people give humbly, but instead we diminish them and ignore them. Sometimes we diminish the small parts that people have in the church.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function.” (Romans 12:3-4)

The body of Christ, that is, the Church, has many members with different functions, since we have different gifts. Each gift is a blessing from God. We haven’t done anything to receive those gifts. In the same way, we shouldn’t brag about them or belittle others’ gifts.

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” (Romans 6:12a)

We have an example in the gospel of Mark where a woman poured precious perfume over Jesus’s head. She, being a woman from a small town, gave costly perfume to Jesus. “She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial” (Mark 14:8). What she did was essential and very important. She was part of something really big. She contributed for the precious sacrifice that Jesus made for the entire world.

Like the woman that gave a small part for something really big, we also have small parts for something bigger than ourselves. That is what Jesus taught us when he talked about the Kingdom of God in Matthew 13: “Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches” (Matthew 13:32). From such a tiny seed, a huge tree grows so that even the birds can stand on it.

Small parts are important and can have great functions that sometimes we don’t realize. Consider the example James gives us, “Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go” (James 3:4).

We come to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and that is the Body of Christ. “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). Each member of His Body, even the smallest ones, become part of his precious Body.

“So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5)