Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”
A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.” -The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien
This quarantine thing is hard, and I barely feel qualified to make such a statement.
My family is healthy. There is food in the refrigerator. I do not work at a hospital.
Others have suffered much more.
Yet it is still hard.
The quarantine began with more enthusiasm. All of the sudden there was time to rest AND get things done. There were jokes about toilet paper. Life was supposed to be on hold for two weeks while brave doctors and nurses fought on the front lines. Then life would return to normal. We can do this!
But two weeks stretched into…into…into? I’ve lost count.
Today is Blursday, a friend shared. I hadn’t checked.
I not only lose orientation to the day and month, but also to the larger story in which we live.
The story is still the same as six weeks ago and six years ago. But my heart needs reminders because smaller stories compete for its attention.
We have plenty to choose from. There’s Netflix, politics, and social media. Then there is the nightly news declaring one story in a myriad of different ways. Covid-19 at the hospitals. Covid-19 in New York City. Covid-19 at the White House. Whether I watch for five minutes or forty-five, I leave with the belief life will not return to normal. We will be quarantined for the rest of our lives. Food will only become more scarce. Death will have the final word.
Sam Jolman writes,
“There is one story on the news, in our world. It’s gripping us all. It’s still not the deepest story of life.”
One story threatens to steal our life, both physically and emotionally. If we are not careful, the monotony of the days and the sadness on the news will convince our heart to agree this is the only story.
Remember the Larger Story
Don’t let Covid-19 become the only or biggest story. To live well, we must find ways to remind our minds and hearts of the Larger Story. Easter arrived last week as a reminder. The holiday burst through Blursday to recenter our perspective.
But then the week started, and even with more time than usual to pray, read Scripture, and connect with friends, it’s difficult.
Our hearts go looking for stories to live in whether we know it or not. One way to feed our heart and remind ourselves of truth is to invest in rich, smaller stories which reflect the themes of the Larger Story.
Good wins.
The evil spell will be broken.
The kingdom will be restored.
In the end, characters recover their true identities, the very ones they have sought.
The old has gone. The new has come.
Relationships will be reconnected and healed, better and deeper than ever before.
Beauty rises from ashes.
Rich, Smaller Stories Can Help
Find other stories to remind your heart of what is deeply true. My daughters helped me with this in two ways over the quarantine.
A few nights ago, I was supposed to be on a family Zoom call. I left the iPad to check on the girls, and I stumbled into a story. They sat in the living watching the end of Beauty and the Beast. I tried to leave, but I was glued to the couch. With Gaston fallen to his doom, Belle professed her love to the dying Beast and broke the old spell. Not only did the Beast transform into his real self, but the entire castle returned to its truest state. The talking clock and candle stick changed back into men. Chip the cup turned back into a person along with the rest of the house staff. The green of spring replaced frozen winter, and relationships, too, began to thaw. Life returned to its glorious, intended state.
I knew the tale. I had seen it before. But what a different experience from the current nightly news. No wonder I stayed to watch. My heart needed to remember how the Larger Story ends.
When we immerse ourselves in rich, smaller yet reflecting stories, it is not an escape from reality but rather an invitation into deeper reality.
We need a story big enough to absorb our anxiety, fear, and stress and feed our faith, sustain our hope, and propel us to love. We need to remember who God is, what story He writes, and the story He invites us to.
A good story will invite you to better engage and wrestle with worthy questions: Who am I? What is life about? Why all the suffering? Where is this story going?
It’s also okay to ask: What is God up to?
Earlier in the quarantine, one of my daughters searched the house for a book to read. She found the Chronicles of Narnia and decided to reread them. In the seven books, the Pevensie kids live through multiple adventures filled with turmoil and loss. They often find themselves seemingly alone against their adversaries and tragedies. They struggle to live with faith, hope, and love. Their smaller story gets more of their attention than the larger one told over several books. They wonder where the great lion Aslan is when they need him most. No doubt he has the power to change their circumstances. He appears absent and thus uncaring.
All of this feels familiar.
In this time of confusion and incomprehensible suffering, it is a hard to know precisely what God is up to.
The answer may not be simple, easy to believe, or make sense to us at this time. But like the great lion Aslan, His heart is good, and we live in His story (not the other way around). Thankfully, last time I checked, the themes of His narrative remain: redemption and restoration end this story as we know it and begin a brand new and better one.
Keep Heart with Stories
The stories you take in will inform the story you live. Choose wisely. It will take effort and intention. Left unattended our attention drifts to what is cheap and artificial.
During the darker moments of these days, I have to remind myself: Keep heart. Remember the Story. Stay attentive to it through smaller stories.
May rich stories open the eyes of your heart to remind you of deeper reality.
