This is not a post about the coronavirus. Not really.
It's more about an issue this virus has plunged all of us into: uncertainty.
Of course, every day of our lives we have lived with uncertainty. We don't ultimately know what the future holds. Many of us don't even have concrete plans for the future.
But few of us have dealt with uncertainty about just so much in our lives.
When will we have church again?
When can the kids go back to school?
What if I get the virus?
What if my elderly loved one gets the virus?
What if I have to go to the hospital?
When can I go to the mall again?
What does this mean for the economy?
Will I be able to find toilet paper???
Everything about our world feels remarkably tenuous right now. Systems that previously seemed so powerful now appear fragile and unsteady. We sit in our homes reading the news and watching the updates and hitting refresh a hundred times a day as each new update adds to the uncertainty.
There's a lot of uncertainty swirling in my own heart, especially about the birth of my daughter who's due in less than seven weeks. Already my birth plan / goals need to be rewritten in some really hard ways. And I have some big fears and questions about what the next month and a half holds. This post stems from my own processing of how to live in such a time as this.
I know I’m not alone, though. In the midst of a global pandemic, the entire world lives with uncertainty. But this is what I've been deeply convicted of: Christians should live with it differently.
Instead of fumbling through each day with fear, instead of being immobilized by anxiety, instead of being paranoid out of panic, we should be clinging to the most radically certain thing in this life: our great God.
He is the unchangeable one in a rapidly changing world. No matter what happens with our health, with our jobs, with our birth plans, with our economy, with our paper product supply, God is totally reliable, trustworthy, sovereign, and faithful.
“For I the LORD do not change.” — Malachi 3:6
“Of old you [Lord] laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.” — Psalm 102:25-27
“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.“ — Psalm 115:3
The coronavirus did not sneak up on God. He is not surprised or startled by it.
Just like he was not surprised or startled by any plague, pandemic, war, or atrocity in the past. And he has never made it impossible for Christians to be faithful through each of those things.
In the midst of the uncertainty of the Spanish Flu — when roughly one-quarter of the world was infected with this disease and 17-100 million people died from it — Christians still remained faithful.
In the midst of the uncertainty of World Wars I and II — when the whole world watched their sons and husbands and fathers go off to fight and tens of millions died — Christians still remained faithful.
In the midst of the uncertainty of the Black Death — when 14th century Europe, Asia, and Africa saw 50 million people die of the bubonic plague — Christian still remained faithful.
We are not the first Christians to deal with global uncertainty. And we won't be the last.
Let's not think we can't deal with this faithfully. We can. It is terribly difficult, yes. But what a time for the church to shine as a light to the world!
In the midst of this uncertainty, let's pray more than ever. Let's read God's Word more than ever. Let's communicate with our brothers and sisters in Christ more than ever. Let's repent more than ever. Let's encourage others more than ever. Let's remind ourselves of God's faithfulness throughout history more than ever.
In the midst of uncertainty, we need hope. And we have it in our good and sovereign God. So many around us don't have this hope. But we have an opportunity through our lives at this moment in history to point to this hope.
Friends, let's not waste it.