Even in the best of journeys there are roadblocks. Things that hinder our progress and our expectations of the journey. It happens to all of us. On your way to a wedding you get a flat tire. Your much anticipated family vacation digresses rather quickly into sickly children and motel rooms that smell like mildew. Then there is the hugest boulder always just beneath the surface, the Wuhan virus.
Wuhan virus is the gift that keeps on mutating and giving. Just as we thought life would go back to normal if we got a vaccine, wore a mask or socially distanced we found it was not happening the way that we hoped it would. Maybe we thought that we still were free to live our life the way that we wished, including making our own medical decisions ex, deciding if we wanted to receive the covid vaccine or not. That freedom is in jeopardy. The fact is, we are in the midst of the hugest roadblock in our lives. It is a physical, emotional and spiritual roadblock, and we have to think about what it all means.
To quote Charles Dickens, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. This is the famous first line of his book entitled, A Tale of Two Cities, where he delves into the time before and after the French Revolution as well as the reign of terror using the historical fiction genre. What is happening today in the world at large from New York to where ever you live is something akin to that time. There are revolutionary things happening. What power and what control do we have when the world has gone mad?
The frenzy, chaos and anarchy that ensued during the French Revolution exists worldwide. As I write this, the country of Afghanistan has fallen into a blackness that resembles my conjectures concerning what the reign of terror must have been like. As I think of the roadblocks in my life right now, and perhaps you have a few too, I can not help but think of the larger roadblocks literally on the way to the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
People are desperate to escape the advancing armies of the brutal Taliban. All week long I could not stop thinking of the images showing desperate parents so poignantly handing their babies over barbed wire fences to soldiers, or a young man, whose life was dominated by the joy of football just a short time ago and who now lies dead after he clung to a departing aircraft. Two ISIS car bombs just exploded and killed and wounded many on their way to the Kabul airport.
I try to put my life happenstances in perspective as I cope with the regulatory oppressions that have begun to invade the sale of my house. After the financial disaster of 2008, many small Westchester villages almost went bankrupt. Democratically controlled places always turn to regulations, and taxation as a means to raise money. My money is their money in Westchester County, New York. There is never a new regulation, permit or tax increase that is rejected here. Obviously, this factors into many departures from one of the most taxed counties in the United States.
Taxation is a great way to fix all the political and budgetary mistakes that they continually and for all perpetuity make over here in Westchester County. It is a downright communist re-distribution of the wealth of hard-working people. Westchester did a tax reassessment on homes in order to increase revenue in the county. The local officials are vampiric in their ardor to drain the resources of people like me.
The municipality insinuate themselves into property sales resulting in inspections, permits, additional time, stress, and expenses. It is my house and I resent how hard it is to sell my own property within the hot housing market of my vicinity. There is much bureaucratic business that has to be done to either buy or sell a house in New York and it comes with a very high price tag. It also slows the process down to a crawl at times.
Don’t forget that a buyer arms themselves with their own knowledge and augments that with a house inspector. This should be all that is needed to buy a house. What else would you need? Certainly not an intrusive and over-reaching village anxious to put their hands into your wallet. However, that is just what I got.
All I want to do is to leave and make a fresh start in this Age of Wuhan Virus. I want to: stay close to Jesus and talk about him as much as possible. I am also anxious to do this as quickly as possible, while I still have the time. The hatred of anything Christian or conservative is now entrenched in the state of New York. So, one of the most important factors for me in this move is to find a place where there are other conservatives and Christians so that I will not feel so alone.
As my nation falls apart, both its domestic and international vision fails. As disease, weather and terrible conflicts break out all over, I know it is finally time to leave the place of my birth, New York. I did not expect so many regulatory roadblocks. As I try to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus these roadblocks serve to help me understand my spiritual weaknesses. It is all very humbling!
In the midst of the joy of searching for our dream house, we experience layer upon layer of adversity, including three deaths: my sister-in-law, a former colleagues’ brother, and a dear soccer mom who lost her young son. Now, I am waking up at three in the morning in spiritual warfare. Yet, the process has begun and my living room, dining room and basement are full of boxes. But where am I going? Not sure yet and there are many roadblocks ahead. My husband and I are digging deeper into our transformative relationship with Jesus Christ and determining that we both need to embrace a more mature Christian attitude.
Every week I find a biblical verse or verses which focus my attention to godly thoughts and perspective on my life and all that is happening in the world. This week, I find that inspiration in Psalm 37. Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
We are in the midst of terrible roadblocks. Does that mean that God will not prosper us? Or perhaps this may not be a time to achieve our heart’s desire? Perhaps God’s promises will be something more of a spiritual nature. I’ve begun to see how truly essential that is.
