How Will We Respond?

In March I celebrated a definitively more-than-middle-aged birthday, right as all of the mitigation practices were first being rolled out. I mention this because I have never experienced anything like this pandemic and the corresponding massive social changes, and that means no one younger than myself has either.

Certainly, we are not the first age to face pestilence or war - many still living today remember other times of war, outbreaks of disease, and financial uncertainty. History is filled with awful circumstances for the people of the given era to wrestle, and we who have come later can look back and see how well they reacted. What will posterity say of us when they look back to this time? Together, we are experiencing a sea change, and it remains to be seen how we will respond as a generation. 

I would like to re-post a thought about "Storms" that I wrote in September of 2018, but have repurposed with the present Coronavirus storm in mind...

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​Here are two thought-provoking questions - what should life be like?  What makes life, or even one day in life, good?

Most of us live under the tremendous misconception that things are always supposed to be easy, pleasant, and “right”.  We are continually and completely surprised and distressed when things don’t the "right" way.  This is probably some shadowy memory in our cellular structure from the Garden of Eden, and of the way things were supposed to be before the fall of mankind.  But the world is fallen, and unfortunately, awful things do happen all the time. One great struggle that many people face is the question of why terrible things happen to good people.  If God is so good, then why does He let such bad things happen, especially to people who live for Him?

The Book of Job is an attention-grabbing book in the Bible, and I encourage you to read it again or for the first time. It tells the story of a man named Job, who was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” It actually says he was the greatest man among all the peoples of the East. He was wealthy and blessed and had a beautiful, large family. In verses 6-12, however, we read that Satan comes into God's presence and accuses that Job would never worship God if all of the good things were taken from his life.  That passage catches my interest! It goes on to say that God responds to the Enemy in verse 12. “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”  Satan then proceeded to destroy everything Job had and loved - his family, his possessions - everything. 

Thomas Cole - Voyage of Life: Manhood

There are so many things to notice in this account. First, I want to remind us that the starting place for understanding anything in life is to realize that the character of God is eternally and entirely without fault.  The Bible teaches that we are created in His image - not the other way around.  He is not just a magnified version of us. God is always good and always chooses for the highest good.  Second, notice that the terrible things that happen to Job were not God’s idea, they were Satan’s idea. Third, remember that we do not have the perspective that God does - He can see everything without constraint of time or location. The things we do not understand and which seem devastating from our perspective are not unclear to God, and we truly can trust Him to work all things for good. (Romans 8:28) 
    
Like Job, some of us have been through some awful things. People suffer and endure hardships like abuse, betrayal, or horrible traumas at the hands of wicked people.  Other troubles take us by surprise - illness in our own body or in that of a loved one, the death of someone close, addictions, marital problems, rebellious children, or a terrifying pandemic and corresponding economic instability. The list of life’s storms is long,  and I am in no way belittling any of those things. ​

  I do want to challenge our thinking. Storms have a few interesting qualities:

• They help us see things we never could have seen without them. For example, the power of forgiveness can never be experienced without something first requiring it; and life can seldom be as appreciated as when it is seriously threatened. 

 

• They help us minister to others in a way we never could have without them.  I have seen many victims of abuse turn around and help others find God’s comfort through a similar situation. Likewise, the current pandemic allows us to share our hope and our material possessions with our neighbors.

 

• They give us opportunity to know God in a different way than we ever could have without them - His kindness, His hope, His peace and healing.

 

• They give us opportunity to show how incredible God is, even when life is unstable. He is with us and gives us strength to endure.

We know storms are going to happen, we know life is not always going to be easy. What if we stopped letting life’s storms render us unable to help anyone, and started seeing them as a great opportunity to minister to others who are hurting?  What if we started treasuring hard times as a way to become more like Jesus? The Bible says in James chapter 1: 2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” 

Listen to this powerful thought from Samuel Chadwick, who lived and ministered over 100 years ago :  ​

“Sometime in the country I have stood and watched the village blacksmith at work, and for a long time could not make out the use of the little trip hammer. The big hammer I could understand, but why should the smith strike in turns the anvil and the iron puzzled me. One day I ventured to ask an explanation, and found that the little hammer regulates the stroke of the big one. The smith holds the glowing metal, turning it lest the stroke fall too often upon the same spot, directing the blows that they may descend at the right moment; turning, tempering, regulating till the metal is fashioned to the desired shape. So God holds the soul and regulates the stroke. Sometimes He makes the Devil His hammer-man . . . Satan strikes to smash. God regulates the stroke, and turns his malice to our perfecting, and the Devil sweats at the task of fashioning saints into the likeness of Christ.”   ​

That horrible thing that happened in your life - the very thing that the Enemy meant to use to destroy you - God can take it and use it to make you better and stronger than you could have been before. This trying time we are facing as a nation can make us better families, friends and neighbors than we ever have been before. We can become more empathetic, more caring, more aware of others, more mature, more wise, and full of steadiness and help for the hurting all around us.

​Read the end of Job’s story. God was right - Job was not just serving Him because of the good things in his life. Job trusted God and refused to curse or turn away from Him during the difficult times, even though that is what many advised Him to do, and God “blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.” 

​The storms of life are going to come on this side of Heaven. Let the devil sweat, and let God make all of us stronger than ever. ​