I have been encouraged by a few friends to share some thoughts on an appropriate Christian response to this current chaotic moment as our global community deals with the coronavirus pandemic.

I confess that I struggle with perfectionism. It seems that even despite my best intentions to the contrary, I so often set up this image in my mind of what excellence looks like, and then I beat myself up as I struggle to attain it…or descend into shame as I inevitably fall short.

Bishop Leslie Newbigin argued that there are two world religions: the Christian faith and everything else. These two world religions can be summed up best as, “One in which we laboriously ascend to God and the other, in which God descends to us” (The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society). To laboriously ascend is to spend your life climbing a spiritual mountain. Picture God at the top imperiously looking down on his creation, while we climb to meet him, suitcases in hand. Backpacks strapped on.