Crisis, such as the COVID-19 Pandemic, can test our abilities and shake up our faith. Like so many, I have a heavy heart as I hear each day about the impacts COVID-19 is having on our communities.

We are thankful to all the health workers, first responders, truck drivers, warehouse workers, grocery store clerks, and many others who are showing the utmost courage and bravery to help our fellow citizens in these difficult times.  We should take precautions and never lose hope.  There are two things we know about all crises: each one is different and each one does end. This too shall pass, God willing.

Here are some inspirational quotes from learned people and scriptures to help you get through the next few weeks:

1. “Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.” – Paulo Coelho
2. “I’ve got some bad news and I’ve got some good news. Nothing lasts forever.” – Kate McGahan
3. “Crisis forces commonality of purpose on one another.” – Michelle Dean
4. “My deepest impulses are optimistic, an attitude that seems to me as spiritually necessary and proper as it is intellectually suspect.” – Ellen Willis
5. In crisis management, be quick with the facts, slow with the blame. – Leonard Saffir
6. “Facing the pandemic, is not what happened matters, it is how we respond.”- Napz Cherub Pellazo
7. “In a time of crisis, we all have the potential to morph up to a new level and do things we never thought possible.” – Stuart Wilde
8. “After all, a crisis doesn’t make a person; it reveals what a person is made of.” — Warren W. Wiersbe
9. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” – Philippians 4:6-7
10. “The secret of crisis management is not good vs. bad, it’s preventing the bad from getting worse.” – Andy Gilman
11. “That insight, that God is to be found not in the crisis but in response to the crisis, is the key to understanding one of the most important passages in the entire Bible.” Harold S. Kushner
12. “In every crisis, doubt or confusion, take the higher path – the path of compassion, courage, understanding and love.” – Amit Ray
13. “Whatever happens in the world happens as the will of God.” – Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita
14. “Attitude is the difference between an Ordeal and an Adventure.” – Bob Bitchin
15. “Good people turn to love, courage and kindness in times of crisis, not hate, fear and cruelty.” – Laurence Overmire
16. “Through each crisis in my life, with acceptance and hope, in a single defining moment, I finally gained the courage to do things differently.” – Sharon E. Rainey
17. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it’s only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” Anonymous
18. “Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth.” – Susan L. Taylor
19. “And We will try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives, and fruits; but give glad tidings to the patient. Who, when a misfortune overtakes them, say, ‘Surely, to God we belong and to Him shall we return.” – Qur’an (2:156-158)
20. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank