Track 17: It's been awhile...
Our blog entered quarantine under the mandate of two children in spring 2019.
Some of you keen observers might be aware that several major events have occurred since we last added a track to the Valla EP. Our hometown became an island during a major flood. The virus from Wuhan, China swept across the world; riots broke out all over the U.S. Add a questionable election and government-issued experimental drugs to the mix, and we now need a medical procedure (and the paperwork to prove it) just to enter into a Burger King in some cities.
Coming back to where we left off in 2019 feels like 30 years of troubled times in history, instead of just three, but honestly pre-2020 feels like yesterday to us. It’s SO easy to get mired into the giant mess that has been the last couple of years, but it’s even easier to dwell in the delightful moments and memories that exist in our heads and in front of our eyes. The one lesson that we cannot shake is that LIFE MOVES EXTREMELY FAST.
“Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
It’s relative in the fact that those long endless summers of our youth were experienced in the midst of our hardworking hustled parents where time was burning by at breakneck speed. All existing in the same household. Now as parents we exist in the same paradox of watching little lives embracing their days that go on and on - while we try to keep it between the lines and wonder where the day went.
The last three years have been a gift. Every day, every moment.
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Just like the time is relative, crisis is as well. We want to believe that we would've handled the same challenges with the same heart even if the circumstances were different. We were at a benefit event for a brother in Christ who died when we got a text from one of our employers, letting us know we’d be closing (Nebraska’s first reported case came from the Fremont YMCA). My mom texted: “What is going on!?!” It’s very vivid. The chatter and questions began spreading around the tables. What we knew was coming (if you were following what was going on in China in early 2020) was finally here. The generation before 9/11 wont remember what life was like before it. And another generation is priming for never understanding what the world used to be like before this.
Amongst the endless inconveniences and mind-boggling mandates there is a peace at least for now, that almost all of these overreaching hands stop short of gripping the most basic and timeless strength of just being a family, and that's what we committed to in our house.
To be honest, we were as curious as anyone else in March 2020 as headline after headline broke on the news. How the virus spreads, how the symptoms start, how you die from it. It was eerie the first couple of weeks as the new confirmed cases were traced and the local papers shared when and where the infected person was and everyone would ask themselves, “Wait, was I in Walmart then!?!"
After about a month of this tension, we decided that life will go on and it did. We had tons of family time, balancing working and making sure kids were happy and healthy. We kept hearing of people receiving government checks, unemployment benefits, and were making quite the haul while at home, remodeling or cleaning out their closets. I (Lou) was a little jealous of that, seeing that we worked more during the lockdown than ever, minus one of Paul's five jobs. In between all the working hours though were tons of fun and adventures. We did as much as we could and went to as many places as we could. Paul, who doesn't really care for crowds, absolutely loved these days where it felt like the world was ours. Everywhere was a ghost town, the places that were open were mostly bare of humanity. We remember just walking around Downtown Omaha and the only thing coming back our way was the kids' screams and laughter echoing amongst the tall buildings.
From parks and zoos to hotel pools, during a time when a daily death count ticker was on the TV screen every day, we committed to living life to the fullest.
We stopped our virtual worship services and began meeting in person in May, which turned into an amazing summer of the church gathering all over. Every Sunday we met at a home or a field or a farm; we sang, we spent time in the Word, and we shared a meal.
Experiencing that fellowship and consistency, and intimacy of sharing as the early church would while reading about other people's experiences felt like we were living on another planet! We feel like people would've gathered to see our church reenact the life they used to know, similar to how people enjoy Civil War reenactments or something.
We lived out the rest of 2020 as peaceful and as normal as we could. The same with 2021. We could go on and on and on. But here's the abridged version: We lived. And we hope you did, too, dear friend.
Almost a year to the date of when this thing came to Fremont, it finally caught us. We had the same brief feelings of uncertainty and fear when we first got it as we did when we first heard about it, but just for a moment. Absolutely NO ONE in any accessible form of media talks about TREATING it. The shots were the ONLY answer, which is astonishingly suspicious. We are by no means health nuts, but we treated it with fresh fruits and vegetables, red meat, vitamins, pure oils and prayer. It was nothing we wouldn't have went to work with if we wouldn't have known what it was, and also the fact that our work wouldn't allow us to go to work!
All the headlines push and push this narrative of the person who mocked it, or refused to wear a mask, or is “anti shots” and they died with the virus. They seem to lob these stories into the public conscious with a “we told you so” morbid glee. They don't tell the thousands and thousands of stories of the people who stopped living, shuddered themselves inside, cut off all contact with the people they love, obeyed all the “rules,” lived in a constant state of fear, and then got the virus and died. It’s heartbreaking to see someone ruin their life, by the suggestion of elites and mass media, up to the point of death. We couldn't imagine spending a year in fear of this, knowing that it’s a slow burn that’s coming for the whole forest.
We’ve got to be real. Everyone is going to get this. We are not speaking lightly of it either. We don't understand why it's nothing to some people and fatal to others, and we’ve watched it hit families hard, but you must find a balance. Make sure your vitamin D levels are good and spend 20 bucks on a pulse oximeter to monitor yourself when you do get it. The most dangerous virus, and the bigger monster, is the darkness in Hollywood, the media, the corporations, the pharmaceuticals, and the ruling tech, who are all the 5th column. It's a game.
Our first message here in years and our message for 2022 is REPENT.
“But unless you repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways and live changed lives], you will all likewise perish.”
Jesus was born, but he died and rose again. He’s coming back in justice and might, and this is why we proclaim the good news to those of you who have yet to accept His free gift. Like we said above, no one knows what tomorrow brings, so repent of your sins and turn to Him today. He is The Way, The Truth, The Life - the only way to the Father. Will you carry this wonderful Truth into the new year with us?
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”