Finding Peace In Times of Trial

A home-based Sunday service outline for those seeking God in self-quarantine

Photo by Deniz Altindas on Unsplash

Background: recently a friend of mine asked if I’d be willing to put together a Sunday Service on Medium that she could use as part of her weekly worship. My religious background is Christian and I’m an active member and former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, there are many of us that cannot attend an organized church service. Some of the material below will be pulled from our church’s extensive gospel library, but the goal here is to provide inspiration for anyone of any faith looking to have a meaningful personal exchange with their divine source.

Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged. I’d love for this to be an active multi-denominational exchange.

Welcome!

If you’re reading this then we’d like to officially welcome you to the second-ever post in this series. It was written with one reader in mind, but we hope that there are more of you that are interested in participating.

This is a Sunday Service gameplan to help individuals wanting to have a home-based faith experience. It’s also an opportunity for heartfelt exchange between individuals of different faiths and a venue to show love and support for anyone and everyone

It is NOT intended to be a replacement for your church’s organized meetings or an active attempt at proselyting for any particular faith. This is also NOT a revenue-generating activity. Every post in the One Truth Publication is outside of the paywall, so there is no financial compensation that will come to ourselves or any other person participating. Our only recognized forms of payment here are love, compassion, and participation :)

Our theme for this week:

Have the world-altering effects of COVID-19 tossed your life around this past week, leaving you feeling at times as if you’re navigating a raging sea of uncertainty on nothing but a doughnut inner tube?

Have you felt marooned at times this past week on unfamiliar islands of self-quarantine?

If so, you’re not alone. In fact, you’ve never been so “not alone” in your entire life. In such a singular and scary moment in human history, it’s natural to feel tough emotions like fear, worry, and loneliness.

Hopefully, you’ve also been witness this past week to inspiring lifesavers of the soul this week, bobbing to the surface in our social media feeds or showing up on our doorstep.

If you’ve reached out this week to those around you, we love and salute you. Thanks for doing what you can do in times of trial. If you’ve yet to find solid footing in a shaky world, we hope this post can help in some small way.

Our theme this week is on overcoming natural fears in times of uncertainty and doubt.

Let’s begin with music

Lyrics: Pete Seeger

We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome, some day

Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day

We’ll walk hand in hand
We’ll walk hand in hand
We’ll walk hand in hand, some day

Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day

We shall live in peace
We shall live in peace
We shall live in peace, some day

Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day

Consider writing down answers in a journal or commenting below

Prayer and Meditation

Following the inspirational musical number, it’s your time to engage in a meaningful exchange with the Divine.

Engaging in meaningful prayer doesn’t just happen. Like any other hobby or sport, it takes dedicated time and effort to see the benefits of prayer.

This week, we’ve pulled from FaithCounts.com and their article “7 Ways to Make Prayer More Meaningful”

1. Find a quiet space
2. Pray out loud: Studies show that talking out loud often helps people focus and remember what they were thinking about.
3. Find a comfortable position
4. Make a list before praying: This can be a list of people around you in need, a list of things for which you’re grateful, a list of things you’d like to improve in your life
5. Pray for those you love
6. Pray for those you need to love
7. Give thanks: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thessalonians 5: 18)

Consider writing down answers in a journal or commenting below

Ideas for Study

For the study portion of the meeting this week, we’ll be referencing a couple of resources on the value of taking action in the face of trials instead of feeling like we’re victims of circumstances beyond our control.

Idea 1: There is Always Something We Can Do

This week in One Truth, we wrote a piece entitled “The Power of Choice,” which talks about an allegory (a story with a spiritual truth) of an olive vineyard.

• Suggested passage: “The Power of Choice”

Consider writing down answers in a journal or commenting below

Idea 2: Give Thanks, even for the Fleas of Life

“Give thanks in all circumstances... It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’” — Betsie Ten Boom

During World War II, Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie were imprisoned in concentration camps by the Nazis for hiding Jews in their home in Holland. You can read the entirety of their inspiring story in Corrie Ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place.

• Suggested Passage: The story of Corrie and Betsie’s experience in Ravensbruck, a northern German concentration camp exclusively for women

Consider writing down answers in a journal or commenting below

Idea 3: Defeating Discouragement, Doubt & Despair

“Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement — discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

In 1980, in the midst of troubling world events, Jeffrey Holland, then President of BYU gave his student body a stirring pep talk entitled For Times of Trouble.

• Suggested Passage: An excerpt from the talk — a story from the life of Thomas Edison:

“Thomas Edison devoted ten years and all of his money to developing the nickel-alkaline storage battery at a time when he was almost penniless. Through that period of time, his record and film production was supporting the storage battery effort. Then one night the terrifying cry of fire echoed through the film plant. Spontaneous combustion had ignited some chemicals. Within moments all of the packing compounds, celluloid for records, film, and other flammable goods had gone up with a roar. Fire companies from eight towns arrived, but the fire and heat were so intense and the water pressure so low that the fire hoses had no effect. Edison was sixty-seven years old — no age to begin anew. His son Charles was frantic, wondering if he were safe, if his spirits were broken, and how he would handle a crisis such as this at his age. Charles saw his father running toward him. He spoke first.

He said, “Where’s your mother? Go get her. Tell her to get her friends. They’ll never see another fire like this as long as they live!”

At 5:30 the next morning, with the fire barely under control, he called his employees together and announced, “We’re rebuilding.” One man was told to lease all the machine shops in the area, another to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie Railroad Company. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “Oh, by the way. Anybody know where we can get some money?” (Paraphrased from Charles Edison, “My Most Unforgettable Character,” Reader’s Digest, December 1961, pp. 175–77.)

Virtually everything you now recognize as a Thomas Edison contribution to your life came after that disaster. Remember, “Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement — discouragement has a germ of its own.”

Consider writing down answers in a journal or commenting below

Preparing for the week ahead

We close this week with a poem written by Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan from Ireland, that you might have already read but is worth a reread in trying times:

Lockdown by Brother Richard:

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.

But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.

Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary

All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.

So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing

— Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan

For those of us interested in furthering our spiritual experience this coming week, here are four suggestions:

• Continue study of the Come, Follow Me Manual for Week 2
• Consider 10 ways you can tend to your tiny vineyard this week
• Consider adding a “gratitude journal” to your list of daily habits
• Consider donating your time or talents to any number of individuals or organizations in need during the COVID-19 crisis. If you need suggestions, consider donating blood to the Red Cross or money to a local food bank. They are in dire need during this season as people turn inward and are overwhelmed with the need to protect themselves and their families.

A Closing Song

Lyrics: McKenna Hixson

There is peace in Christ
When we learn of Him
Feel the love He felt for us
When He bore our sins

Listen to His words
Let them come alive
If we know Him as He is
There is peace in Christ

He gives us hope
When hope is gone
He gives us strength
When we can’t go on
He gives us shelter
In the storms of life
When there’s no peace on earth
There is peace in Christ

Have a blessed week.

Thanks!