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Spiritual diary of self-isolation: God's grace as a lifeline

Lynne Baab • Thursday March 19 2020

A lifeline is the line or rope used to keep contact with someone in a dangerous situation, such as a diver or astronaut. What is the danger in the covid-19 pandemic? Obviously the virus itself, but for Christians an additional major danger is that we will lose hope in God, that we will let our anxieties obliterate Christ’s “peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

Two weeks ago my husband and I chose almost total self-isolation because my husband has a chronic lung disease. In my post two days ago, I wrote about two lifelines for me in the past two weeks:

1....

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Spiritual diary of self-isolation: Weeks 1 and 2

Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 17 2020

Here in Seattle, covid-19 exploded into our daily lives on leap day, Saturday, February 29. We had known for weeks there were a handful of cases in the Seattle area. On that Saturday, we learned of the first confirmed death in the United States – in a Seattle suburb about 20 minutes drive from us. On the news on Saturday we saw reports of super long lines at Costco as people began shopping frenetically.

On Sunday, my husband Dave and I went to church as usual, and people were using fist bumps instead of handshakes. On the way home from church, we stopped...

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Important anniversaries in 2020: Florence Nightingale was born in 1820

Lynne Baab • Thursday March 12 2020

When I think of Florence Nightingale, it seems like she was always there in my memory. I’ve been trying to remember when I first heard of her. Late elementary school? Junior high school? Surely I knew about her before I entered high school. I knew she was an adventurous nurse, and I associated nurses with hands-on caring for human need, something I wasn’t very good at, so she never felt like any kind of a model to me.

Later, when I began to love learning about places, I associated her with being a nurse during the Crimean War (1853-1856). I found the...

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Important anniversaries in 2020: The first Earth Day in 1970

Lynne Baab • Friday March 6 2020

When I think of what has happened in the 50 years since the first Earth Day, I feel deep gratitude and profound grief. And when I think of this gorgeous fragile earth which reflects the beauty of its Creator, I also feel deep gratitude and profound grief.

I am grateful for Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book Silent Spring alerted the world to the dangers of synthetic pesticides. Silent Spring was one of the triggers for the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. I’m grateful that the first Earth Day was supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and more than 20 million...

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