COVID-19 Novel Encouragement Sample

Love at Close Quarters

My sister-in-law and I were messaging about the Coronavirus not that long ago, and I made the joke: "Make sure you marry your best friend because you never know when you'll be locked in a house together for a month!"

It came out as an off-handed comment, but it got me thinking. How is it being locked in a house with your best friend for a month? If you're married, I hope this encourages you in your relationship with your spouse. If you're not married, so much of marriage is friendship, and so I hope this encourages you in your relationships with your roommates and friends.

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." – John 15:13  

I don't know about you, but my volume of work has definitely increased after returning to work online. I have the joy of a two-minute commute to my work chair and a wider variety of snack options during the day, but now that we're into the rhythm of online work, the time between opening and closing my work computer is packed. Unless there’s a crisis, I'm a firm believer in being 100% present at work when I'm working, and 100% absent when I'm not. As a result, it's easy for me to forget about things like housework and then, when I emerge from an intense day, to want to put off doing them for a day (or several) so that I can enjoy some relaxation time with my husband.

But here's the thing: my husband also works very intensely, but he's much better at taking a short break to get something done around the house. I could let him do that by himself, but it wouldn't be very loving of me to leave him all of the housework because I'm absorbed in my own work life. Instead, I need to lay down my work and sacrifice some of my break time to wash dishes or put clothes in the laundry to demonstrate love to my husband.

This isn't nearly as intense of a sacrifice as literally laying down your life, as Jesus did for us on the cross, but even the smallest of our sacrifices can become threads in our household tapestry of love.

"[Bear] with one another, and, if one has a complaint against another, [forgive] each other" – Colossians 3:13

It's impossible to spend this much time in close proximity with someone and not have conflict. If we don't expect it, we're kidding ourselves. However, conflict doesn't have to be explosive and leave us hiding on opposite ends of the house. The Bible gives us some powerful perspectives on dealing with conflict.

We're told to "[bear] with one another." Bearing with one another means that we meet the other person as they are; we don't cut them off or ignore them because we find them frustrating. It means that we grow selective in what we allow to frustrate us, choosing only to address those things that leave the other person built up.

We're also told to "[forgive] each other." We know from the Gospel of Matthew (8:15) that we're not required to suppress our complaints; indeed, we're told that we have a responsibility to confront one another when we have a complaint. This can be difficult, especially when the person you need to confront is the only other human being in your immediate vicinity. Happily, God never instructs us to do something uncomfortable unless it's for our ultimate good, and confronting conflict is no exception.

My husband and I come from families with very different styles of conflict management. His family tends to avoid direct confrontation; my family runs into it headlong. Learning how to bring problems up at the moment in a gracious and kind way has been one of the on-going lessons of our marriage.

We've had plenty of practice dealing with conflict in the last five weeks. The more we've chosen to immediately confront an issue while speaking kindly, the easier it has been for each of us to take responsibility for our part in the issue, forgive one another, and move forward peaceably.

"…In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." John 16:33b

I love how real Jesus is. You could never say that He gave anyone false expectations about what the Christian life would be like. He is very direct about how challenging life will be, but he does not leave us without hope.

Living in relationship with other fallen human beings demands sacrifice and forbearance. It will be taxing at times, but we don't have to do it alone. Let us make our sacrifices for our friends and family, step boldly (but gently!) into healthy conflict, and look continually to Jesus as we do.

Prayer: Lord, help me to love sacrificially as you do. Help me to speak the truth in love as you do. Help me to abide in you for all strength to engage my friends and family with the kindness that comes from you.

By Hallie Whitmore, Beijing