The sadness of 2020 hit a little harder when I heard that Chadwick Boseman (Wakanda’s King T’Challa) died yesterday from cancer. 2020 has been a hard year, coronavirus pandemic, lives lost from illness and racial injustice, locust swamps, fires, floods, explosions, people lost (Kobe Bryant, Ravi Zacharias, John Lewis, and now Chadwick Boseman). All these in addition to our own personal life struggles. Just one of these incidents can cause any of us immense grief, not to talk of all of them combined. 2020 has been tough!
However you are feeling today or during this season or this year, you are not alone. I’ve had different periods of mourning and today feels like another day to mourn. So just a few reminders for you:
- It’s okay to not be okay. Your emotions and distress are valid. You are allowed to be a strong person yet acknowledge when you feel sad, angry, frustrated, tired, unsure of how you feel, etc. Don’t ignore it!
- Practice self-care. It’s okay to stop your to-do list for the day or a few days and take care of yourself. What do you need? More sleep, to spend time with loved ones, a good meal, a good laugh, to watch something, to cry, to vent, to read, to write/journal, to dance, to spend some time with God (in prayer, worship, Bible reading)? How can you get that need met? View more self-care tips here and here.
- Remember that this too shall pass. The sky remains the sky! Sometimes it is blue, sometimes it’s multiple colors at once, sometimes you can see the clouds, other times it’s all grey, but the sky remains the sky. Just like the sky, some days we feel happy, other days sad, sometimes good about life, other days not so much, but you remain who you are. Ever changing emotions and situations is a part of life. This current mood or state or season will pass as well.
- When you are ready, get back up and go for it. As sad as I am that Chadwick Boseman passed, I’m so inspired by the fact that for the past 4 years he knew he had colon cancer, was going through treatment, yet he chose not to let that stop him from fulfilling his purpose. He acted in 7 movies (don’t quote me on the number) including Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame and more. I can’t even imagine how much strength and determination it takes to do all that while going through cancer treatment. It’s a reminder to me and to all of us that life is too short to wait for things to be “going well” before we act. While it’s okay for you to mourn, please don’t use the current state of affairs to stop you from doing that thing you feel called to do. Go for it!
- Be a little more loving. Lastly, we are all going through something, so we need to care a little more. Be a little more sensitive to those around you. An excellent way to think of how to practice this is inserting your name in place of the word “love” in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It shows you where it might be hard for you to love and where you could try a little harder.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
