Every city around us has closed its schools; some for a month, most for six weeks. We are expected to hear, this afternoon, my daughter’s public school will also be shutting down.
Ballet has stopped. Youth group suspended. Even churches on Sundays are streaming instead of hosting a building full of people.
Yesterday, Washington State’s Governor, Jay Inslee, gave a government mandate to close all gatherings in Washington State of 250 people or more. He also recommended the closing of all other 250 people or less, “non-essential” gatherings.
That means kids will be home, some for a month and a half; kids who are used to being gone or at daycare, requiring the working population in Washington State to stay home to care for their children.
While our world hoard and stockpiles, fears rise at the slightest running nose, our once rush hour city of Seattle appears abandoned, freeways empty, our city, almost a ghost town…
People are still flooding local clinics however, and our local hospitals still see people seeking medical help for symptoms of Coronavirus, or COVID-19.
While most are dreading stopping their fast-paced, hectic schedules of sports and careers, school, and a thousand other obligations…
I give thanks because my hope is that we’ll all just slow down and remind ourselves what really matters in a life. We are not God. “We are but a pen in the Father’s hand.” (Mother Teresa)
Too often, we run on autopilot, race faster, thinking little about each quality moment or the people who ache for attention all around us.
Most don’t know our neighbors or reach out to friends. We fail to slow down with children on our lap while they read to us, one carfully articulated word at a time.
We have become blind to what really matters. Fast food, fast cars, and a fast world have forced us into autopilot.
We have missed God in our nation. incorrectly believing we are the authors of everything we have created.
And I think God wants us to recognize, we have no ability or power apart from Him. In a second our world’s could collapse. Isn’t it time we surrender to His omnipotence?
Disease or an economy frozen from a virus, will we let it humble our hearts from self-will, self-independence and our own egos?
My hope is, the world, especially Washington, will turn their eyes towards heaven, get low, and recognize anything good we have been experiencing is because of Him, not us.
As believers, we have hope, not because we are guaranteed to be protected from every single infirmity…”naming it and claiming it”….
But because in life and death, in sickness and in health, in poverty and wealth, God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
God is still good, and He doesn’t leave us, just because our life doesn’t go our way.
Could it be, God is trying to get our attention?
Yet, what has happend in our world, when…
Just this past week, in Washington, self-proclaimed Satanist were allowed on the steps of our State Capital, chanting “Hail Satan”?
These are the same courts that recently passed a bill to mandate teaching our public school Kindergarteners about sex, instead of focusing on reading, writing and arithmatic?
Why are we all so unassuming, thinking God isn’t watching, allowing those who oppose the Bible to have their way in our legal buildings, just for the sake of “tolerance”?
Who has our nations turned to? The God of self?
Or do we cling to a world where we act like Jesus isn’t on His throne, directing our own steps as if God 
isn’t concerned that the hearts of His people have slowly turned away from Him?
If He is King, why do we fear?
A governor that has closed our state has been effective in stopping the gatherings of church, for the sake of our own “protection”.
But he can’t stop our faith.
No one can stop a heart eager and intentional to serve Him.
The world is watching. Our nation has been through seasons of disease and pestilence before. (I just heard from a lady healed from polio and paralysis, because of prayer)
But the question isn’t, “Can we endure?”. But “What will our faith look like when this season of pandemic and hysteria is done?”
God has always been close and present during times of war and disease, oppression and infirmities. Why would He fail us now?
Shelves may be emptied of beans and rice. People may be hiding in their homes, fearful to come outside…
But our God is using it all to bring us closer to our families, strip us from all unnecessary business and draw us nearer to Him.
Our hope is Him alone. Any good we have is not from our hands, but from the heart of The One who conquered sin and death.
He is still on His throne. He still rules and reigns and is far above any quarantine or virus, government mandate or people looking to the internet for instruction.
Will we sit alone in our quiet houses, no school, no work, no sporting events or will we let revival ignite our hearts again?
Will we open the Word, look straight at Him, pray for His provision, and understand that He alone is God, soverieng until the end.
Let’s let go of our self-made Kingdoms. None of this shocks a God that knows the end from the beginning.
He made us and sees us. He formed us in our mother’s womb and He won’t leave us now. His Kingdom always rises in the face of persecution.
May we return to our hope, Him, rising in faith, fearlesslyy showing the world what peace looks like when the world spins in unbriddled hysteria.
Mindful and connected, let’s find our faith in a Savior that redeemed us. God is greater than anything the media spews.
We are not people of a world that shrinks in the face of fear. We are children of God. And this earth is not our home.
1 Comment
“We are not people of a world that shrinks in the face of fear. We are children of God. And this earth is not our home.” Amen! This post is what everyone needs to hear. You do such a great job encouraging and educating. Thanks so much for sharing.