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19 ways to bring hope in the waiting

I received a resourceful email from our friends at the National Christian Foundation. In it, they provided some simple ways to love our neighbors during this unique season.

We had been looking for creative ways to support our community and foster relationships, NCF's email seemed timely and the information worth sharing.

Here are 19 simple ways to love your neighbor in light of COVID-19.

1. Shop local: Call local businesses and restaurants to ask whether they’re open, and how you can (safely) support them. Order delivery, merchandise, or a gift card online for future use.

2. Give blood: Blood drives across the country have been cancelled, and the American Red Cross is reporting a severe shortage of blood. Contact your local Red Cross and find a location to donate.

3. Support the people that serve you: Go ahead and send an online payment to your hairdresser, babysitter, dance teacher, or anyone who regularly serves you or might suddenly be out of work. A little Venmo, PayPal, or Apple Pay donation goes a long way. 

4. Tithe your essential supplies: If you were fortunate enough to buy extra toilet paper, wipes, disinfectant, and other essentials, consider donating 10% or more to neighbors in need, or local shelters.  I have come across several pleas for medical supplies from my local hospital and a senior care facility.

5. Shop for a senior: Offer to help shop for food and pick up medications for seniors and others at-risk. Consider forming a group to help! 

6.  Use the Nextdoor app: Sign into the Nextdoor app to see if you have any neighbors who’ve posted requests for assistance. Neighbors across the country are using Nextdoor to connect and provide help.

7. Support your local food bank: With schools closed, many children go hungry without their normal school breakfasts or lunches. Contact your food bank or other hunger assistance program to see how you can help.

8. Support your local homeless shelter: The homeless are especially vulnerable with no place to quarantine and no way to practice good hygiene. Contact shelters or homeless ministries to donate money or drop off supplies.

9. Call someone, on a regular basis: Being in isolation is especially hard for those who live alone, and might feel cutoff. Even a 15-minute FaceTime call can help a neighbor feel connected and loved. 

10. Tend to a teen:  If you're a grandparent, try FaceTiming your grandchildren, or if you're a parent, sit down with your teens at home to help them cope with coronavirus-related anxiety. 

11. Send a pizza:  Teachers, first-responders, even busy parents who are trying to work and homeschool their kids, could really use a simple gesture like a hot pizza delivery to brighten their day.

12. Help your church prepare: Already, there’s a growing number of online resources to help churches prayerfully prepare for the COVID-19 crisis. 

13. Praise and worship: Put on a porch concert or sing a familiar song from your window as people in Italy are doing right now.

14. Keep your small group going, virtually: Use Google Hangouts  or   Zoom  to keep meeting with your small group on a regular basis. Now is the time to stay in touch and pray with the ones you do life with, more than ever.

15. Write a letter: Grab some stationary and write letters to neighbors, loved ones, senior homes, hospitals, and police officers. A note of encouragement can go a long way to ease loneliness and worry.

16. Don’t complain: Refrain from complaining about the things we have to give up in this season while people in the world suffer. This is our moment to be the voice of faith, hope, and love – especially on social media. 

17. Speak faith: In the face of panic, Christians have the unique opportunity to speak peace. Email a verse, or call a neighbor to ask if you can pray for them. God’s Word will not return void.

18. Enjoy your home, and stay there as much as possible: Christians have a moral responsibility to protect those around us and in this case, that means staying home as much as we can, so we don’t put others at risk. 

19. And pray! Pray alone, with your family, and in online corporate group prayers. Pray especially for janitors, doctors, nurses, chaplains, first responders, drivers, laborers, moms, and teachers. 

We choose to be for our neighbors and those at the margins. This is, of course, true for the temporary widows and orphans, but it applies to so many more during this season as well. May we provide hope in the waiting to as many as possible during this season of uncertainty. 

Discontentment may be the greatest trap of our time. It may even be greater than lust, greed, and lying, because discontentment leads to all these other sins and more. It tends to be a well-spring of iniquity. I, Martin, have been in full-time ministry and a lawyer, practicing law for a time as well. Almost 100% of the counseling I participated in, whether it was in ministry or in law, had discontentment at its source. It feels like the entire world is colluding to stir up discontentment within us. Every billboard, every commercial, every brochure tends to communicate, a single message: “You deserve and need more.”

As soon as we think we are content it slips away, due to something we see on television, some stray thought, or a small comment another person makes. It is sometimes the result of circumstances, life is not all roses; trouble comes our way and every once in awhile, it actually wasn’t our fault ; somehow discontentment finds its way into our life.

Is Contentment even Possible?

Paul says that it is. In fact, he says that he has learned to be content in whatever situation he is in (Philippians 4:11). He goes on to tell us the secret to contentment: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). 

Paul isn’t saying he can do all things in Christ as a kind of blanket statement. 

• He doesn’t think he can fly, or
• become the Emperor of Rome, or 
• create a rainbow in the sky.

Many times, the idea of contentment is like the idea of prayer itself. 

• We believe in it, or 
• We hope we believe in it, or 
• We wish we believed in it.  
• We just aren’t sure it is really true.

Faith is so simple, and yet so hard. How often have we run through a version of: “God, Do you really even exist?”  You may be thinking, “Well God, if you do, and I am not saying you don’t, but “If you do; then, do you really love me?” God, “I mean, I don’t particularly like me right now, and it doesn’t seem like you do either”. “I am in trouble and ….” or “I have this struggle or problem or issue that I can’t seem to resolve”. “Where are you God?”   Didn’t you say “I can do all things through Christ?” Well, I don’t think it is working.

This is not what Paul is saying with this verse; Paul is asserting that in all circumstances he can be content in Christ who strengthens him. 

• This is the secret! 
• It isn’t the “get out of Jail free” card in Monopoly.
• It is not ignoring circumstances, 
• it is not rising above them either, and 
• it is not resigning one’s self to them

Does this sound like you today? Are you experiencing doubt, frustration, or discontentment in your life? You are not alone.  

For the Apostle Paul the answer was rather living IN My Circumstances IN Christ. Paul’s statement is an echo of an earlier statement where he says: “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). 

Next time I will explain this idea in more detail and share with you part of Pastor Steve’s journey through his period of discontentment!  There is an Answer.

I would love to hear some of your thoughts on this.  You can Email me at martinboelens@sbcorlando.com

Jay Knight concluded his introduction to the questions of orignins.  If you have questions about any of the following:  Where did we come from?  How did we get here?  Is there any purpose in life?  What is my purpose?  Why am I here?  We invite you to meet with us as we do a study using the first Book of the Bible as our text.