Not long ago, we were all going about our regular lives, sticking to our usual schedule.
Now, everything is far from normal.
I’m sure you all have experienced an interruption of plans because of COVID-19’s rapid spread across the world. My friends and I met at church on March 8th as usual, never expecting that a couple of weeks later, church would be closed until further notice.
There have been some amazing articles here on The Rebelution about COVID-19 that I recommend you check out, but I just want to share with you what God has been teaching me through this pandemic.
WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN TOMORROW
I’m a type A planner by nature. I love organizing my weeks and days out into a concise schedule, especially when it comes to school. When my plans get interrupted, I get irritated, impatient, and even angry as my entire schedule is thrown off.
For many of us, COVID-19 has interrupted our lives inconveniently. Our plans have been changed or even canceled to help prevent the spread of this highly contagious virus.
In my devotion last week, I read James 4:13-15, which says, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”
Like many of you, my weeks were packed with things to do and places to go, but now, most of those things have been suspended, moved online, or canceled.
DON’T TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED
When life is going well, we tend to take it for granted, don’t we? We don’t think much of asking for God’s help. We don’t feel we need the help.
But when things are going well, we forget to thank God for his help.
I find this is true in my own life. Every night, I ask God to protect us from harm and evil, and he does. Whenever I start taking our safety for granted, something happens that scares me (police showing up at the door to tell us something, gunshots heard nearby outside, police cars running up and down the street to look for someone—to name a few).
James 5:13 says it so well: “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.”
Friends, let’s use this pandemic and learn from it. Don’t take anything for granted. Praise God for everything.
Praise him for the days you can go to church. Praise him for a good night’s rest and protection through the night. Praise him for the food and drink you have each meal. With food being harder to get, I’ve been much more thankful for each meal than I was before.
Have THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE
The coronavirus has been good for us, I think. Not health-wise, but perspective-wise. Everything we took for granted—school, extracurricular activities, friend and family gatherings, church, our own health and the health of others—have been taken from us for a time, and we don’t know when we’ll get them back.
Our lives and plans have been disrupted, and we’ve been forced to put everything in perspective and think about what really matters in life—family, friends, and the hope that we have in Christ, our Savior.
We don’t know what lies ahead, but we do know we can trust the Lord to take care of us. Worst case scenario, we catch the virus and die. But if we’ve been born again, we’ll go to heaven and meet our Savior face-to-face at last.
If that’s the worst that can happen to me, I have nothing to fear.
As believers, we do have this hope and confidence, dear friends. No matter what happens tomorrow, or this week, or the rest of this month, God is in control of the situation. He’s teaching us something through this, and we can trust him to be with us the entire way.
