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One or two GOOD things have come out of the pandemic. One is cleaner air. Another may be clearing the spiritual air to spot one of the most insidious vices of the human heart. Let's look at Luke 12:13-15 and one of my favorite verses, Luke 17:32.

Music Today: Caedmon's Call, 'This World'
'This world has nothing for me, and this world has everything/
all that I could want/and nothing that I need.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjEoaUTdFXw

Bob Dylan, 'Blind Willie Mctell'
'Seen the arrow on the doorpost/saying, 'this land is condemned, all the way from New Orleans, to Jerusalem. . . '
'Well, God is in his heaven/and we all want what's His
but power and greed and corruptible seed/seem to be all that there is/ I'm gazing out the window of the St. James motel/and I know no one can sing the blues like blind Willie McTell.'
Geeking out over Dylan lyrics can be a full time hobby, but let me just offer this one - in a song dealing with greed and slavery, the lessons we learn from living with the book of James (St. James motel?) are very applicable.

It's not just those on the front line of physical peril that can become casualties in a pandemic. The dangers that accompany meeting spiritual needs hit talented pastors especially hard. Join me for a meditation on spiritual depression and Revelation 22:16. Let's be careful out there.

Music today: Ben Shive, 'Rise Up'. When a song can move you from anger to worship, that's powerful medicine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQx-Cv_X_hU

Leslie Phillips, 'Carry You'. Phillips certainly knows something about spiritual depression, but her farewell release to Christian music was a classic, and that includes this reminder of Christ's sufficiency in trouble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eISdKOe0els