Some of you have potentially gotten the virus and potentially worked through it. Some of you know someone who is sick with it and wondering if they will recover. Some of you know someone who you are very worried about, knowing that if they get infected you will most likely have to watch them suffer. Some of you have loved ones who are quarantined and you cannot see them.
Some of you are extroverted and literally going berserk by the lack of human interaction and as a result are functioning like a hard drive would function if there were a strong magnet next to it. Some of you have young children who don't understand the concept of social distancing and keeping them bottled up inside and not playing with others is exhausting, at minimum.
Some of you have school age kids who were in school and now suddenly at home and they are bored. Some of you are sad that big things that you have spent lots of time preparing for have been cancelled such as prom, graduation...or a wedding.
Some of you are not worried about the virus as much as you are worried about tyranny. You might wonder if this is politicized and will be a tool in the hands of government to overstep their bounds and strip us of our religious freedoms. Some of you have a hard time trusting that the lockdown measures are really solving a problem instead of creating one that will be far worse.
I could go on. Don't get me wrong, however, not all changes have been bad. Introverts are dancing in the streets...but not any closer than six feet from anyone else:) Normally there needs to be room for a Bible to measure the appropriate dancing distance, now there needs to be room for a hockey goal. Some of you have more job security now than ever before. Many of you are working from home which means more time with the family and less time commuting. If you are a couch potato you went from being lazy to being a national hero. Those of you who homeschool have realized that homeschooling to a quarantine is like a bomb shelter to a bomb threat: you're prepared for it! You may have experienced rest from a lack of schedules and endless appointments and begun to realize how taxing our fast paced lives have been on you only after the extra curriculars have come to a screeching halt. These are good things and they should give us some needed perspective for when life goes back to...normal? These are gifts from God and no one argues that.
Yet, as this wears on we watch the death toll rise and the economy plummet. We hear more of the same, stay at home. More people filing for unemployment, more depression, more domestic issues, more people losing their businesses and their emergency funds, more worry, more anxiety, more concern and all we are told is that we haven't even hit our peak yet. Hitting one's peak is something to look forward to but in this case it is ominous. Do all of these things come from the hand of God? Two weeks ago Christians said things like "God is in control" much like Minnesotans say "have a nice day." Today, you might have to stop and give it some thought. While you may not question whether or not God is really in control, you might start to question how God exercises his control.
Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it? (Amos 3:6). I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things (Isaiah 45:7). The Bible tells us that God is in control of calamity and this is a calamity. God is not responding to it or reacting to it and Satan isn't the mastermind behind this. God has caused Coronavirus and everything that comes with it is part of the way God works all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11). Two weeks ago pithy and pietistic religious platitudes worked just fine. Today, when people's patience is starting to wear thin and the carnage is piling up and the end is nowhere in sight, we are starting to resemble Job just a little bit more when he puts his hand over his mouth and admits I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. (Job 42:3). We are starting to realize what John Piper is saying "It matters little what we think about the Coronavirus. But it matters eternally what God thinks."
And of course, when you stop and ask yourself, what was it exactly that was too wonderful for Job? Wasn't it this? God's purpose, the very purpose that Job says cannot be thwarted in verse 2? When Job says that God can do all things in verse 2 Christians normally take that as a comfort, that nothing is too hard for God. This is correct. It should comfort us. At the same time it takes us right out of our comfort zone because it also refers to God's right to introduce a tiny, invisible monster that brings the global economy to it's collective knees. As C.S. Lewis said, "He's good but he isn't tame."
Make no mistake, this is a blog of hope. Great hope, in fact. However, if our faith is going to endure through the season before us the church will need to walk in Job's shoes for an unidentified season and learn the lessons he did. God has a purpose in this, he has a plan, he has something that he is accomplishing that is ultimately good. But much like Job, we will learn that along the way God goes about getting his will done in drastically different ways than we ever would and we will almost certainly find ourselves wondering, confused, even disagreeing with his wisdom at times.
Take heart, the same God who sends the Coronavirus to the earth to accomplish his purpose also sends his Son to live a righteous life and die a sinners death on the cross. If you are a Christian you should realize that you are saved, eternally so, through wisdom you would have misunderstood and protested if you were there. This will of God was so good and so offensive to man that even the disciples of Jesus couldn't understand it even when Jesus was right in front of their face explaining it to them plainly (Matthew 16:21-23). If the disciples had to wrestle greatly with the will of God we can rest assured that we will have our own struggles through this season. Yet, remember that if the cross of Christ ended so wonderfully for the Church and accomplished salvation for all those who trust in Christ, we can have just as much confidence that God, along with his people, will ultimately benefit from his strange design now.
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
Job 42:2-3
In Christ,
Pastor Kevin
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