Good to Trust, and to Attend

For every morning they renewed bee,
For great, O Lord, is thy fidelity.
The Lord is, saith my Soule, my portion,
And therefore in him will I hope alone.

The Lord is good to them, who on him relie,
And to the Soule that seeks him earnestly.
It is both good to trust, and to attend.
The Lord's salvation unto the end.

- John Donne

In times of trials and difficult times, I turn to books and poetry. I always turn to books and poetry, actually, but in these days, I take extra comfort in their wisdom. A timelessness is present that speaks to us from centuries past, and it is just as relevant. No one can say that the old writers cannot speak to us because our modern age is so different. I will greatly disagree.

Shakespeare was dealing with a plague season when half of London shut down and all the playhouses closed (causing his work to stop). George Herbert lived in such times. John Donne wrote during the plagues and even seemed to have coronavirus himself, having a fever so severe, the physicians said he would soon die from the fever. He wrote the most beautiful poem  on that such instance - "Hymne to God, my God, in my sicknesse". Here is first stanza:

Since I am coming to that Holy roome,
Where, with thy Quire of Saints for evermore,
I shall be made thy Musique; As I come
I tune thy Instrument here at the dore,
And what I must doe then, thinke here before.

We are not living something totally new. Look back to the writers from history and see what they have to say about the experiences of viruses that came about. Perhaps our connectedness today and ease of travel has made our pandemic even more global than ever, but that also shows our reliance on each other. We need to experience life together amongst others, and that spans that globe.

Writers can teach us so much if we pay attention to it. It might take more effort. It is easier to turn on the television to hear what the news wants to tell us, but what about the voices from the past? They already went through similar struggles. Hear the wisdom they have to give.

Our Lord is always present and with us, through all of history. He was there in the 1500s, and He is here today.