Home Alone

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Avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people. Avoid restaurants except for pickup options.  Avoid discretionary travel.  So says the President’s coronavirus guidelines.

Most churches complied, and pushed some of the faithful out of their comfort zones. Whether your church attendance is a lifestyle that you enjoy or a duty according to your religion, the disruption of canceled services can be disconcerting.  Pope Francis acknowledged as much when he urged Catholics, “If you cannot find a priest to confess to, speak directly with God, your father, and tell him the truth…ask for pardon with all your heart.”

Jesus offers comfort for these strange times. “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.  These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:32-33).  We, too, are scattered to our own homes by social distancing concerns or shelter in place demands.

If you find yourself alone while working or schooling from home, avoiding groups of 10 and restaurant dining rooms, or minimizing shopping trips and travel, then realize that you are not alone. Jesus’ followers left Him to face his trial alone, and yet he found comfort in the presence of the Father.  When you are alone, consider it your opportunity to meditate on the Word of God and pray about what is happening in the world today.  The Lord is near, and He invites you into his presence.

What does God offer in these troubling times? Peace.  Jesus said that since He has overcome the world, we can have courage and peace.  The peace that Jesus describes can only be experienced in times of tribulation.  Said another way, when all is calm and bright, it is contentment that you feel.  Peace is experienced in contrast with strife, such as when your health is threatened or your job is in jeopardy. Resisting the coronavirus and its effects is the struggle that makes your God-given peace more evident.

Why doesn’t God do something about this? Well, He did.  God the Son came to earth to “overcome the world,” He said.  Of all that is packed into those three words, His tone is clear.  He is compassionate about your plight in this moment.  He made it clear that this world is not all there is to reality, and He has prepared a place for you away from the troubles of this world.

The good news is that if you follow all the coronavirus guidelines, stay home alone, and miss some church services, you can still enjoy the Lord’s presence and His peace.

Viral Response

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The headlines are dire. “Coronavirus outbreak.” “Dow drops triggering another trading pause.” “Travel ban.” “Medical supply shortage.” “State of Emergency.” While the world’s leaders and medical experts mount a defense to this growing plague, believers can turn to eternal truths we hold in our hands. Here are a few meditations from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (4:4). Obstacles to rejoicing have always existed. The world is no more fallen, marred by sin, and producing war, famine, and pestilences than when these words were penned. Consider instead, that we are created by God and gifted with life. We know God and experience His love, even in the midst of the worst the world can offer. We are traveling toward another place where the darkness of disease is displaced by the Light of God. “Whatever is lovely…dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8).

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God” (4:6). We are people of prayer in good times and bad. The people of God are “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9), so our role is to approach God on behalf of others. Here is a prayer: “Lord, this virus outbreak has not caught you unaware, as nothing is a surprise to you. You have the power to stay the advance of this disease. We ask that you deliver us from this evil. As in all things, we ask that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

“The peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7). We have no need to respond in panic, fear, or hysterics. No calamity can remove that certain peace we have in Christ Jesus. That peace enables us to move toward calamity quite willing to serve those around us, share of our possessions, and show the love of God. For our friends who do not know that peace, may God use our lives to draw them to the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls (1 Pet. 2:25).

“I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (4:12). In a worst case scenario, this virus has a lasting effect not only on medicine and mortality, but on jobs, personal income, and the worldwide economy. May the Lord grant us wisdom to be content in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.

My prayer for you, dear reader, is that you live out your own headline. How about, “Responding in faith, not fear”?

Forgotten Wisdom

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“We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too proud to pray to the God that made us.” – Abraham Lincoln

Vice President Pence led a prayer with the coronavirus task force in his West Wing office.  His political opponents mocked him specifically, and faith in God generally.  It’s as though entreating the Creator to grant wisdom for scientists to defeat a virus is anti-science.  Those angry critics are smug in their own “superior wisdom.”

A virus is a product of a fallen world that has become something other than God’s original design.  Even so, when scientists explore nature they learn about that design. The Bible says God can be known and “understood through what has been made.” But it adds a warning.  “Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:21).  Even Einstein recognized late in life the futility of science without God.  He said, “I want to know God’s thoughts – the rest are mere details.”

Solomon was ancient Israel’s wisest king.  When God offered to grant what Solomon might request, he eschewed wealth and military prowess to ask for wisdom.  That God-given wisdom to judge was famously on display when he settled the dispute between two women claiming the same baby (1 Kings 3).  God’s wisdom is as applicable to government now, as then.  Those who disagree have resorted to prayer-shaming those who remember to seek wisdom from its highest source.

Have you heard the saying, “You can’t blame a blind man for stepping on your foot”? Prayer-shamers don’t know any better.  The Bible says “the word of the cross is foolishness” to them.  Unbelief deprives a person from knowing the ultimate expression of wisdom, which is not about science or government.  It’s about a Person.  “You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 1). To know Him is to know Wisdom.

No one wants to be a fool.  You need wisdom to make sense of the world, discern whose counsel to accept, and anticipate the consequences of your choices.  The good news is that the Creator offers the benefit of wisdom to those who ask.  “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously” (Jam. 1:5).

Lincoln’s charge is still valid today.  Heed his warning to be humble and remember to pray that God grant you wisdom far superior to your own.

Timeless Meaning

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You cannot step into the same river twice – Heraclitus (500 BCE).

Why is that? Because the river is different, and so are you. At no point in the future will both you and the river be the same. You might imagine you stay the same, but then you remember what you wrote, said, or wore in the past and you know you would not repeat that. Whatever changed you is marked by time. We humans are so immersed in time that we could no more imagine a world without chronology than a fish imagine life outside of water. To contemplate the vastness of time makes one feel rather small. And pointless.

In Carpe Diem Redeemed,” Os Guinness describes that feeling. “Our own small enterprises and endeavors appear to be whistling into the winds of history. In the end, the sands of time will cover everything without a trace of who we are and what we have done. Or so it seems.” So, what then is the meaning of life’s endeavors? Why live to make a mark or leave a legacy if time laughs at the irrelevance of it all?

However bleak the questions, you have reason to hope. God placed you on the scene when and where He wanted you to be. “In your book were all written the days that were ordained for me” (Psa. 139:16). Consider Queen Esther. Her step-father Mordecai urged her to risk her life by approaching the king to stop a plot against their people. “Who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14). Any day of your life could be the most meaningful for history and the purposes of God. Guinness writes, “Under the twin truths of God’s sovereignty and human significance, time and history are going somewhere, and each of us is not only unique and significant in ourselves, but we have a unique and significant part to play in our own lives, in our own generation, and therefore in the overall sweep of history.”

That part is best played by seeking to know your Creator. He “gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God” (Acts 17:25-27). That is why you are alive in these times.

Your life has meaning not because you found a way to make it so, but because your Creator has a purpose for you. Time is not a cruel eraser that removes your mark on this world. It is the context in which you find meaning in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, who loves you. So step into that river, and be refreshed.

Crisis of Contempt

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Dr. Arthur Brooks spoke at the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. His message was not well received by some, but it is a message we need to hear.

America is facing a crisis. Scorched earth politics, demands to “fundamentally change” our country, and violence against political opponents are symptoms.  Dr. Brooks, a Harvard professor, identified the problem as a crisis of contempt, defined as “the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.”  How did we get there? Market-driven reporting and ill-informed opinions foment outrage, which triggers contempt, which erupts into the headlines of the day.

People who disagree with your politics have the same worth as you, made in the image of God. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). You express God’s image within you by loving even those who hate you and pray that they, too, rise to the image of God within them.  God loved you before you loved him, so likewise, you may have to be first in tamping down your own outrage and contempt.  By the way, recognizing the image of God in every person includes not only your political opponent, but also the aged, infirm, disabled, people of different race or creed, and unborn humans.

When Christians follow Jesus, we lead the way to reconciliation. He taught a lofty ethic, the way we ought to live.  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:43-45).  Can partisan D’s and R’s really love each other?  If you follow Jesus, you have no choice.  To do otherwise is to lose sight of what it means to be truly human.

Dr. Brooks said, “True moral courage isn’t standing up to the people with whom you disagree. It’s standing up to the people with whom you agree, on behalf of those with whom you disagree.”  Don’t let people who do agree with you get away with contempt for those who don’t.  Speaking up is your opportunity to follow Jesus, to bend the curve toward a kinder, gentler nation.

“I am a social scientist and a university professor. But most importantly, I am a follower of Jesus, who taught each of us to love God and to love each other,” Dr. Brooks said.  When you make the ethics of Jesus your own, your world is a better place. But the one who chooses love over contempt is the one who benefits most, by relieving stress on body and soul.  You can only carry contempt in a bucket of outrage, a weighty load indeed.