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Fear is a great motivator, but it will burn you out from the inside.

The Collaborative promotes the value of all work whether paid or unpaid. However, we tend to feature and discuss the paid kind more often, but not today. Elise Daniel challenges us all to revisit how we think about household activities, to reconsider traditions, and to reconsider gender role assumptions in her article, “What is the Best Division of Labor at Home?” She offers great nuggets of wisdom that are all about the promotion of healthy relationships, of grace and gratitude, and the idea of leveraging our strengths. Even if your home runs smoothly, I would encourage you to read this article and think about how things could be improved and maybe this doesn’t result in a reassignment of responsibilities, but rather results in deepening appreciation for one another.

While we do not know when COVID-19 is going to end, staying in survival mode is not healthy. If you haven’t already pivoted in your thinking, you need to make that shift. The pivot is where you quit being consumed by the inconveniences and frustrations or become more proactive in managing these things, and move into living like you know and believe that God has not taken a hiatus. Our spiritually can’t take one either.

If we wish to follow in Christ’s footsteps, then we cannot avoid suffering. Many Christians don’t have the answers to deal with suffering. They apply truisms to broken people like bandaids to gaping wounds. They silence grief because they don’t want to hear it– both their own grief and the grief of others. But there is someone who hears.

The spectrum of views concerning police enforcement, racial tension, white privilege and more is broad and complicated. Most of all, it is shifting. Amidst the shift, we must be open to both/and positions and reject the simplicity, if not precariousness, of either/or options.

By understanding something about where we are, we may just lighten our burden ever so slightly, but more importantly, we may discover who God knows us to be and who we are supposed to be to others.

The amazing grace of which Christians sing each Easter speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice and offer of redemption. In addition to singing, my neighbors and I offered prayers of thanksgiving for the medical professionals and first responders, while asking God to heal the world and close friends, colleagues, and family from the ravages of COVID-19. Our prayers of supplication, or request, covered the global economy to the local pizzeria to government relief and to hospital capacities. Our prayers were not specific to the salvific work of Christ on the cross, but rather focused on the loving, merciful, and graceful intervention of God in a world that is suffering.

Today we have curated several different articles that we thought would be of interest to you. Most of these articles are not long. We have hyperlinked the titles for your convenience and have included a blurb to give you some sense of the article under each title. The New York Times article uses a term called “tragic optimism” which for the Christ follower would be called the joy of our salvation. Or as Hugh Whelchel puts it, “Standing in the love of Christ is the source of all the motivation we need to do what he has called us to do.” There is a lot to consider in these articles, so happy reading.

This is our third and final installment of the three-part vlog series entitled Navigating Turbulence (Part 1 and Part 2 here). We are considering our own well-being in this week’s vlog. Case Thorp and Donelle Wright, a seasoned leadership coach, will discuss What is God asking of us at this time? along with How do you access joy in difficult seasons? This conversation can help all of us personally, but also provide deeper understanding as we strive to lead well during turbulence.