“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5.3
The associate headmaster at my school has challenged our students with this thought, “Be the kind of people who need minimal governance, not draconian responses!” Last fall, we applied that to the dress code; we are now applying it to attendance in our virtual classrooms.
I teach 18 year old boys, and I’m finding that it is harder to teach when there is not a physical school, when accountability is simply done via Google documents, when the only face to face contact I have is on a screen. In my physical classroom, I carefully watched over the class during tests. They knew that one slip would incite my draconian response! Now, my students are completely out of sight. Virtual honor, truth, and duty have minimal governance.
During this pandemic time of social distancing, I have discovered that I, too, have minimal governance. I find myself being more selfish, pausing at the end of each day and realizing just how much time I have spent thinking about myself--washing my hands, planning my meals, considering my 401K. My, my, my, my. And, then I turn to the Scriptures, “Blessed are the poor in spirit….” Am I poor in spirit? Am I humble? In Mere Christianty, C. S. Lewis wrote that truly humble men don’t focus on attempts at being humble; truly humble men don’t think about themselves at all.
Ouch! So, I don’t get a pass during the COVID-19 months to be selfish? Then, who is going to look after me? In that same sermon, Jesus adds, “Don’t be anxious about your life, what you eat and drink and wear. Your life is more than food! Your body is more than clothes! Your Father knows you need all that. Instead, seek first the kingdom….” That same kingdom the poor in spirit inherit is the one I’m to be seeking.
There it is, yet another paradox of our faith: we grow inward by reaching outward. Easy to understand, but difficult to do. Next time I step back from a stranger to save myself from possible virus transfer, I’ll pause and consider what is lying behind those eyes some 6 feet away. Rather than think about the losses of my 401K, I’ll pray for the 3.3 million Americans who are currently filing for unemployment. Rather than grimace about my favorite restaurant being closed, I’ll drive by and see the chairs upside on the tables, waitresses and waiters out of sight but not out of mind.
The coronavirus has inconvenienced me, but Jesus said I’d be blessed only if I lost myself and focused on being his hands and his feet. Our world is spinning out of control, headed toward a place far worse than a COVID-19 pandemic. May God help me to find ways to think less of self and more of his kingdom.
