Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

1 Peter 4:10 NIV

As the days pass and the news continues to be grim, it can be difficult to know what to do. I admit I’ve watched more news in the last week than I’ve ever watched in my life. Watching updates from Prime Minister Trudeau and Premiere Ford and Mayor John Tory have become daily habits.

Somewhere in the midst of all that I consumed across the media platforms today, I heard this phrase: “you can serve others by staying home.” I loved that. For me, it helped me reframe the sitting-at-home-doing-nothing that has made up the past week in a much more proactive and meaningful light.

You see, followers of Jesus are always called to serve others in Jesus’ name. We are called to acts of kindness and generosity and love. Sitting at home is counter-intuitive to that call.

So seeing the ‘stay at home’ directive as one of serving others helps me understand that by staying at home, by heeding the advice of health experts, by listening to carefully (but hopefully not obsessively) to the news, I am in fact serving others. I am living out my faith and my call in this way.

I want to encourage you to do the same – serve others, by staying home, by keeping physical distance with anyone you come into contact with, by heeding the advice of our experts.

But I also want to encourage to serve others by making phone calls to let people know you’re thinking of them and praying for them, by being in touch through texting, messaging and emails. By encouraging others every way you can while continuing to maintain physical distance.

Let me leave you, dear friends with this blessing (which I found on Facebook at some point in the last few days, I am unsure of its origins, but would love to give credit – so if you know, help me out!).