We have become “The people of the Covid-19 Virus.”
What important aspect of our society has remained untouched? Name one. What region of the world has escaped it’s crushing influence? None. This is big! Life is different now and there is no going back to the old normal. This is a new Day.
“Covid-19” gives new meaning to “comprehensive.” And how about “essential”? It dominates the news. It is horribly distracting and fear-producing even for some who claim to follow Jesus. Nearly everyone with a voice is talking about it and there’s no reason to think it will end soon.
Some are stepping up to new levels of expressing the heart of God in responding to those in need. Others are, in the midst of the trauma, taking license to do the previously unthinkable. Friends, cherished friends, are breaking marriage covenants.
We will be constantly reminded of The-V as we move forward. As we do church again. And make babies. And do weddings and funerals and education and graduations and budgets and enterprise.
But please, let’s determine to find our identity, security and response in God. The-V can define our nation and our world but it doesn’t need to define God’s people. We, individually and collectively, have a superseding identity which shapes everything about us, body, soul and spirit. Including our focus in life, how we use the extra time we now have, and how we define success and well-being.
God intends that His Name and His glory should cover the earth as The-V now does. Both are spirit in nature. They are mortal enemies and we are a battleground. Which will we give our soul to in this most trying time? Philippians 4:4-9 might be a good discipline to embrace.
The-V will, as with every weapon in Satan’s hand, ultimately bow to the sovereign and all-powerful God who always gets the last word. Everything serves Him. Psa. 119:89-91. In the meantime, He will speak peace into us if we will quiet ourselves long enough to listen, and He will most certainly call us to respect those who respond differently than us. I like how that is put in this brief devotional by Nate Ward, a pastor at Wooster Church of the Nazarene.
I suspect that God will also challenge us to search our hearts; to redefine what it means to be the Church; and to see and take advantage of the new opportunities that The-V presents for making Him known. Will it incapacitate us or invigorate us?
What think you?
Ken Stoltzfus, Kidron, OH
June 13, 2020
CLICK HERE for a printable pdf.