March 10, 2022
Greetings Pax Pres! If you’re encouraged by this message, please share it with others.
I composed this message and filmed a video of me sharing the following thoughts on Thursday, March 10, 2022. It was on March 13, 2020 that President Trump officially declared a national emergency related to the spread of the novel coronavirus that we all now know as Covid-19. Not to mention its endless variant names - have you enjoyed learning the Greek alphabet the last two years?
A lot of other milestones unfolded day by day in early 2020 - school shutdowns, travel bans, and so forth. But as we approach what would roughly be the two-year anniversary of the explosion of Covid-19 in our country, I want to offer some reflections and encouragement from God’s Word to you on such a sobering occasion.
Psalm
40 says:
“I
waited patiently for the Lord;
he
turned to me and heard my cry.
He
lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out
of the mud and mire;
he
set my feet on a rock
and
gave me a firm place to stand.
He
put a new song in my mouth,
a
hymn of praise to our God.
Many
will see and fear the Lord
and
put their trust in him.
Blessed
is the one
who
trusts in the Lord,
who
does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.”
“I waited patiently for the Lord.” Two years of a global pandemic will test anyone’s patience. And for some of us, even after two years, the waiting continues - maybe on something related to the pandemic or something else in your life circumstances like a broken relationship, a loved one dying, job uncertainty, or more. Jesus Christ came offering “life to the full” (John 10:10) to those who look to Him for rescue and not, as Psalm 40 says, “to the proud or to false gods.”
That doesn’t mean all our suffering will go away tomorrow. But it does mean that in the two years of a pandemic or the years still ahead of you, submitting to trust and obey Him offers us qualities from the Holy Spirit to get us through each day no matter how muddy, slimy and dark the days are – as the psalmist says. Qualities like the fruit of the Holy Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, and so forth; the perseverance described in Romans 5, and more.
Jesus offers life to the full in the present-day sense. He also offers life to the full in the sense that there’s a long-term promise: one day, He will come again. Even if the struggles - pandemic or otherwise - don’t end anytime soon. Even if, as the psalmist says, he doesn’t lift you out of your slimy pits and mud and mire this year or next. One day he will wipe away all tears, reveal a new heaven and earth, and offer eternal joy and rest in His presence to those who confess Jesus as Savior and Lord.
I need these encouragements too. So join me in holding onto the hope of God’s daily provision to shape our character to persevere beyond the first two years of a global pandemic. Join me in holding onto the hope that, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Paul says “our light and momentary troubles.” He is not at all downplaying the severity of life’s suffering: six million deaths to Covid-19 worldwide. Employees of so many industries burned out: hospital staff and medical professionals; business workers; teachers; housekeepers in hotels; and more. Constant questions of “How long, O Lord?” “What will the new normal be?” Beyond the pandemic itself, we’ve had tension around race relations and systemic injustice, ever-increasing anxiety about our global climate, a divisive presidential election season, and now a new war incited by Russia. Or just on the ordinary, daily scale, I read an article a couple months ago about “decision fatigue. We’re all tired of the constant pivoting, calling audibles, and rethinking one decision after another because of Covid-19.
Paul’s point is not necessarily that, in themselves, these are light and momentary troubles. His point is a comparison and contrast — if you could add up the physical weight of all these sources of pain, and then imagine a source of glory, goodness, and joy that far outweighs them all, I can’t even wrap my head around how much goodness and joy that is. Yet Paul says it is coming. It is coming for those who hang onto Christ, and when we can’t muster up the strength to hold onto Christ, that HE will hold onto us.
I realize that even in two years of a pandemic, we’ve seen ordinary moments of unsung grace and resilience too, and we can give thanks to God for the way we see that in each other. But even then, God is preparing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs it all. If we wait patiently for the Lord, He will once, finally, and for all pull us out of the slimy pit of sin and suffering and set our feet in the presence of the rock, the glorious, loving, powerful, holy, compassionate King Jesus. Let’s cling to that hope together no matter what the rest of this pandemic or anything else in this world continues to bring. God bless you.
