Anxious for Nothing… But I Wouldn’t Mind Having My Sense of Taste Back

I’m going to keep this short today. I’m currently keeping company with the scourge of 2020—COVID19. My symptoms are mild, nothing more than an annoying and slightly psychotic cold. I say psychotic because of the randomness with which each symptom seems to come and go…and come again. Fever, congestion, and excessive tiredness seem to be the extent of it for me and I was thankful. Until I also lost my sense of taste and smell last night. I didn’t realize how much pleasure I found in the taste of food.

The only taste I have left is salt, which seems to be an excellent reminder to me that I am called to be the salt no matter what circumstances come my way.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses it’s flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5:13

Quarantine has given me a lot of thinking time (not all of it good thanks to an overload of pain reliever and nasal decongestant). But the one thing I haven’t done is worry. Despite all there is that could tempt me to be anxious, I keep my thoughts directed toward Jesus.

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you.” Isaiah 26:30

How do I keep being salt even when life leaves me quarantined and feeling less than useful?

I keep my mind on God, finding my peace in His sovereignty and truth. Instead of becoming mired down in worry, that peace moves me forward…and forward is the only way I can go if I’m serious about continuing to be the salt.

I’m saying not today coronavirus. My mind is on the Lord.

Not today political ads. My mind is on Jesus.

Not today Satan. My mind is on God.

This doesn’t mean my head is in the sand—that I’m choosing to ignore the world around me. It means that everything—and I do mean EVERYTHING—that enters my thoughts has to pass through the filter of God’s word. I may have to lock it in a little closet while I go search scripture for wisdom in how to handle it, but before I give it permission to mess with my emotions it has to first submit to the truth of God’s word.

Since I have that kind of time right now, I checked to see if there was something I was supposed to be anxious about. Here’s what God says it is okay for us to worry or be anxious about:

“Be anxious for nothing…” Philippians 4:6

Remember when we were kids and we saw or heard something we didn’t understand. Before we became teenagers and knew it all, the first place we went was to our parents to ask them what it meant. They might not have always had an answer for us then, but God always does.

If something tempts us to worry, to be anxious, to feel anything but the peace, we should take it to our Father.

I know people who are constantly looking up answers to random questions on their smart phones. They seem to take every question or curiosity that enters their head to the internet for answers or clarification.

How sad that we have the ultimate authority— the source of eternal wisdom—even closer than the World Wide Web in the palm of our hands, yet He’s often the last place we go.

No matter what comes at us today, let us determine right now that the first thing we will do is set our minds on God.

Now please pass the Saltines and a blanket.