April 6th, 2020

Good day to all,
This morning I watched a mental health expert speak on loss and how people are coping with it during this period in our lives. 
As I thought about how people cope with loss, my mind turned to my stay in rehab at Long Beach Naval Hospital thirty-four years ago.  One thing I remember is that in the center, there were patients dealing with compulsive drug, alcohol, gambling, and eating disorders.  The underlying issues were pretty much the same, what differed was how our dysfunction manifested itself.  This however, did not prevent patients from setting up a disorder pecking order. The drug addicts would tell the alcoholics, "we have a disease, you are just a drunk".  The alcoholics would tell the food disorder people, "We have a disease, you guys just lack will power.". The eating disorder people would tell the gamblers, "We have real problems, we have no idea why you are even here.". Everyone wanted to make sure folks understood their dysfunction was significant 

As we look around right now at what we may be missing and coping with our sense of loss, we may be tempted to make comparisons to others.  We may say, "I miss going in to work, at least you have a job"; "my sense of loss is over important things, not the insignificant things you consider real loss"; "Do you really consider not being able to meet your friends for breakfast a loss?" The comparisons may go on and on as we strive to set up an imaginary "loss" totem pole. 

The problem with focusing on loss  is that it gets in the way of looking at what we have. If you can read this, it means you have electricity and the means to stat connected in some manner, even if it is not as personal as you would like.  If you can read this, it means you can read and because you have an electronic devise, have access to a Bible in some fashion or another.  If you have access to a Bible, you have access to countless promises of God that He is with us every step of the way and that what we gain in Him is much greater than anything we may be missing at this time. 

Indeed, Paul points out that anything we may consider as something gained is incomparable to knowing Christ. In Philippians 3:8 he writes [Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For HIs sake I suffered the loss of all things and count them all as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.]  The use of the word "rubbish" in the ESV is a translator's attempt to clean up the language by using a euphemism.  A more literal translation would be that all things be counted as "pooh".  

Whatever loss we may be feeling in the moment, cannot and does not compare with the fact that we know Christ as Lord and Savior.
Let's keep on eye on what we have and not what we don't.
blessings, Vic