Part 2 of Corona-time: When You Do What You Can, You Do Enough

Clock at John Wesley's childhood home
The Old Rectory, Epworth

About a week ago, I wrote about different kinds of time and proposed the idea of corona-time as a way of describing the weird quality of our days spent under quarantine.  I quoted at length from a letter John Wesley wrote in 1785 to one of his itinerant preachers, not realizing he used the exact same phrase in a letter to Elizabeth Ritchie on August 19, 1784.

Elizabeth Ritchie was a highly respected Methodist class leader who had a profound experience of sanctification, and she later became the housekeeper at Wesley's home in London. That was a significant post because she was responsible not only for temporal matters but also for the spiritual well-being of the household. In that capacity, she led morning and evening prayer and examined the members of the "family" with regard to their growth in grace and holiness, offering spiritual direction and reproof if necessary.

She and Wesley corresponded frequently, and he encouraged her, challenged her, and supported her in her Christian journey. She often suffered from ill health, and Wesley, always interested in both spiritual and physical fitness, gave her medical advice, as well. In this letter, he expresses concern about another leader who seemed to have lost her way, and he exclaims,

I hope, my dear Betsy, this will never be your case! You will never leave off your labour of love; though you should not always  (not immediately at least) see the fruit of your labours...

A measure of zeal and activity is given to every one when [she or] he finds peace with God... Never abate anything in your diligence in doing good. Sometimes, indeed, the feeble body sinks under you; but when you do what you can, you do enough.

These are days in which everyone is sorely tested. Essential workers are afraid they aren't being protected enough, people isolated at home worry about getting back to work, and parents fret over the difficulty of teaching their children.  And clergy everywhere feel guilty or inadequate because they're suddenly expected to display mastery of all things technical, managing onscreen worship and Bible study, officiating at funerals via live-streaming, and serving as the IT person for parishioners who are struggling with computers and tablets, longing for connection.

There's a meme floating around Facebook right now suggesting that those sheltering at home should emerge from quarantine with either a new business plan, fluency in another language, or the great American novel. If you don't, according to the meme, you don't lack time, you lack discipline. That kind of guilt trip, nobody needs. Now more than ever is a time for extending grace to each other and grace to ourselves. None of us have lived the Covid-19 lifestyle before, and for some, just taking a shower and getting dressed is all they can manage.

If you're stressed out because you think you should be doing more, doing better, doing something every second of the day, take heart from those encouraging words from Wesley, and remember

When you do what you can, you do enough.