DAY 136: It’s 2022. What Does Life Look Like?

DAY 136

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Tuesday 28 July 2020

It’s 2022. What Does Life Look Like?

“It’s 2022, and the coronavirus has at long last been defeated. After a miserable year and a half, alternating between lockdowns and new outbreaks, life can finally begin returning to normal. But it will not be the old normal. It swill be a new world, with a reshaped economy, much like war and depression reordered life for previous generations. Thousands of companies that were vulnerable before the virus arrived have disappeared. Dozens of colleges are shutting down, in the first wave of closures in the history of American higher education. People have also changed long held patterns of behavior: outdoor socializing is in, business trips are out.” - From a recent newspaper article by the same name

Daydream – fantasize – put yourself in the future beyond the global pandemic. Write down the following:

Q: What would you like to see return and be the same as it was before?

Q: What would you like to see be different than is was before?

As much as we would like to, we cannot control any of the things we have written above. God’s Word warns us about such prognosticating in James 4:13-14: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.”

Jesus cautions us in the Sermon on the Mount regarding the unknown future in Matthew 6:34:   “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” I like the way The Message puts it: “…don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”   

Reflective question: In answering the questions above, what one thing is most important for you?

Reflective Scripture: James 4:14 – “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

Reflective hymn:

“God of the Ages” – Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008)

Lord of past ages, Lord of this morning,

Lord of the future, help us we pray:

Teach us to trust You, love and obey You,

Crown you each moment, Lord of today.