Written by Stewart Weatherbee
Shortly after the lockdown in response to Covid 19 started, I came across a quote from Adrienne Heinz, a clinical research psychologist at the (US) Veterans Affairs Center for PTSD. She said, “Our routine is the scaffolding of life. It’s how we organize information and our time. And without it we can feel really lost.”
For many people the suddenness of the lockdown turned their lives upside down. Schools were closed so someone had to be able to stay home to look after the kids. “Oops, my job has been closed down too and everyone is supposed to stay at home. Guess I’ll be able to look after the kids for the couple of weeks that this will last. The news is getting really scary. There’s a lot of people really sick and people are dying from this thing. The numbers are getting higher every day. What’s a person supposed to do? Do we have enough toilet paper?”
Well we’re more than 8 weeks into this, so how have you adjusted your framework, or built a new one to cope with all that’s happening – or not happening, as the case may be?
It is said that the Chinese character for crisis can also be interpreted as ‘opportunity’, so perhaps in every crisis, is an opportunity. Have you perhaps taken this crisis as an opportunity to evaluate your life and lifestyle and see what things can be changed for the better?
Speaking of people going through a crisis, take a look at the first couple of chapters of the book of Job. Job was a rich man who had 10 children, homes, servants and great herds. In one day everything was taken from him. His children and most of the servants were killed. The herds were run off by his enemies, his houses were destroyed and his body was covered with boils. All he had left was his wife (who certainly wasn’t very happy about how things had turned out) and his faith in God. Job summed it up: “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Could we have that same trust in God?
God has a plan for each one of us. They are good plans and plans for good. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” That’s right; He has a plan for you.
As believers in Christ we can consider Romans 8:28 as a direct consequence of the promise in Jeremiah. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to His purpose for them.”
One of the verses that is often used as a solace instruction for people when there are hard times is Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!” I’ve not really understood this verse until someone (Holy Spirit maybe) told me to look at the words and not at whatever circumstances I was going though.
Rejoicing in the Lord is all about looking at Him, not ourselves and definitely not at what’s happening around us and to us. Think about all the things He has blessed you with in the past and in the present.
R.C. Sproul, an American theologian and writer posed this question: “The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in?”
Think about the promises He had given in Jeremiah and Romans. Now think of this: Do you trust Him to carry out His promises? Perhaps the opportunity we can take from this crisis is to develop a closer relationship with the God that has made the promises listed above so that we can face the new adventure He has for us after Covid -19.
