In a few weeks’ time, our world has turned upside down.

That’s the thing about crises — they come unannounced and settle right over the plans and dreams we’d scrawled into planners and calendars. 

Stores have sold out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer and our best plans have cancelled like bad Christmas tree lights – conferences, speaking engagements, church services, ballet lessons, senior class trips, weddings, sporting events, and more.

In the days since, we’ve seen this virus escalate globally, then nationally and then like a London fog seeping into our towns and cities.  We’ve isolated to protect the vulnerable and ourselves, working from home and schooling from home and we don’t know how long this will last.

Both the world at large and our personal worlds have turned upside down.

I hear all around the weight we’re carrying in crisis.

• We’re weary before the day’s even over as we prepare for the worst while praying for the best.

• We’re grieving that once-in-a-lifetime events won’t happen or certainly won’t look like we dreamed.

• We’re adjusting to massive change and upheaval to our day-to-day normality.

• We’re watching markets tumble, layoffs happen and businesses struggle, wondering what kind of economic repercussions are down the road.

• We’re overwhelmed with headlines and predictions and anxious for the unknown that lies ahead.

It’s all leaving us confused, fearful and vulnerable.

While I’ve never been through a time like this — none of us has – I’ve been through the kind of crisis that upends every part of life.

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We’re in a season of disappointment.

In the space of 24 hours, we’ve gotten notice after notice of cancellation.

We’ve had multiple local events cancel like The Players Championship that heralds spring in my city every year. A half-dozen friends are making a quick trip to Walt Disney World today before it shuts down for the rest of March.

Some are weightier cancellations. A friend’s daughter was one win into the national college basketball tournament and fingertips close to a national title when an announcement shut it all down and her team flew home with deep disapointment.

Work opportunities, mission trips, senior trips and once-in-a-lifetime events have been cancelled and we don’t know how long this will last.

We’re in a season of disappointment.

And while the timing of COVID-19 and these cancellations are outside of our control, our response and what we do with this time rests solely with us.

Because here’s what Coronavirus hasn’t cancelled.

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