Explosions sounded, fireworks blasted, hearts were gladened, no one expecting what the coming year might bring.
As usual, pens jotted lists of resolutions, hearts imagined restored finances or relations, and minds conjured a year that would be better than the one we left.
Yet, as the clock ticked, as the ball dropped, as the world turned on its axis and the sun rose on day-one of this coming new year…
Little did we know an unseen culprit was hidden, lurking, growing in the shadows of people’s immune systems.
An economy that surpassed the world, one that was the strongest in all history, took a sudden down-turn as the President declared a virus was amongst us…soon infiltrating us, from China.
I don’t know about you, but there were days, those first days as our world sat in quarantine, when I gazed in utter and complete shock.
I looked over at my daughter, home from school closing, hoping the world outside of my television viewing looked better than what nightly news casters were saying.
The first case of Coronavirus emerged, less than twenty miles from my home, at a hospital across the street from where my parents live.
With the world watching, ventilators, face-masks, hiding people. Loved ones suffering and dying, taking their last breathe in isolated hospital rooms alone. (My 98 year old cousin from Norway just passed away from COVID-19 last week)
Did any of us expect, an invisible enemy, a silent killer would sweep in and rob everyone from the idols that held precidence over family or community, church or Jesus?
The “holy” said, 2020 would be the year of God’s people, “seeing”. But, have we seen clearer? Are our eyes open?
I watch Francis Chan this morning. (Watch here) He talks about life on a treadmill, a world where we run and keep running, not looking around us, or stopping long enough to engage in relationship with the One who made us.
Yet, can we test such hope once dormant inside us?
Lean on a faith that has promised to sustain us? Wash away the sand, to make sure it’s the Rock of all Ages we are standing on as the storm clouds of this epidemic slowly begin to clear?
And I keep going back to God’s people, in Scripture. They put the blood on their doorway as the Angel of Death passed by.
It protected them.
Yet, even in their deliverance, many preferred the captivity of slavery to the freedom of a way that demanded they look to creation (cloud and fire) and to God leading them along the way.
And I wonder, are we seeing clearer this new year? Are we opening our eyes to the Lord that holds precedence over a world spinning out of control…
One that sometimes feels like it’s turning so fast. Everything is flipping upside-down. Right is wrong, good is evil. (Isaiah 5:20)
And what about the locus’ in Africa? Does God see them? Has the world closed their eyes to poverty and famine? When pressures hits, do we curl up inward or shift our eyes to the truly destitute and needy?
And why are prisoners tried and convicted, let loose in the name of sympathy? Has this world become a madhouse? Have we all just jumped off the deep end and are now treading water, in hopes to save ourselves?
Protesters line the grass fields in front of Washington State’s capital. Holding signs, they demand this quaratine to lift. Small business are closed, yet the Marijuana, or “Pot Shops”, in Washington are open.
A few people trickle through the grocery line, small numbers only allowed sparingly into our local food stores, while tax-giving alcohol businesses are filled to capacity.
Parks are closed. People are getting arrested for walking the beach or speaking the name of Jesus publicly in drive-in style worship services…
Yet, the officials in offices still have countless people tending to their needs en mass. (i.e. house cleaners, gardeners etc.)
Why are some jobs, those of blue-collar, hardworking Americans deemed non-essential? While others, like abortion clinics are still running at full compacity, conveniently labeled as, “essential” businesses?
I don’t know about you, but I want a faith that rises. A life that isn’t filled with ignorance or blindness. I want to open up the doors of my life and accept, Jesus is wanting more.
God doesn’t honor treadmill living. He is simply seeking personal relationship with each and every one of us.
It’s His breathe in our lungs. Yet, we run to devices, services and subsidies to sustain us and pacify us. When, in actuality, isn’t it Jesus the only one who redeems, holds and protects us?
It’s His grace that is so necessary in this day that’s getting darker, while people are getting blinder to the reality of Jesus as King.
May we open our eyes and see? Know, taste, and experience The One who is jealous for us and won’t tolerate a world spinning out of control, away from Him.
Won’t any merciful God reach out His hand and stop His created nation from slow pummeting to its death?
May He jolt this world back into reality and shine His light brighter that we ever might have experienced, when we were living independent, as sole propriators of our decisions.
We are meant to be children; sheep, dependent and created beings looking for our hope, strength and identity in the Savior who made us.
Oh, that we might see.
Oh, that despite what is going on, we might be given sight, despite the mud of this world, placed on our faces.
Can we be a people willing to walk to filthy waters, wash in His truth, obedient to whatever He asks of us, so that we might be healed?
And friends, we need to be healed, whole and helped, rid of our own self-righteousness and personal agendas of success, riches, invidual purpose or fulfillment.
We are not islands. Not self-sufficient. Not smart or strong or capable or intellegent. We are broken. Shattered vessels needing a Saviors grace and protection, proficiency and provision.
Might we lay weak, so that we can rise strong.
Will we abandon ourselves as helpless, so that His voice and power can move through us, untainted?
This world’s agenda is daunting, at best. But we know a Hope that can save us (Psalms 33:18), a Strong Tower we can run to (Proverbs 18:10). There, we will be safe.
Our Savior hides us under the shadow of His wing (Psalms 91:4). He is the Rock we take refuge in (Psalms 18:2), our Mighty Fortress in times of need (Psalms 46).
What if our prayer this year would be, “God, help us to see….Let us see our need for you”?
He is doing a new thing. And to do new things, He needs us to shed our old wine skins.
Let’s clothe ourselves in His beauty and step out and live again.
Jesus, we need you. We beg you. Open our eyes in the year of 2020, so that we might truly see.
4 Comments
Powerful article, Jen. Wow, love this: “And, did any of us expect, an invisible enemy, a silent killer would sweep in and rob everyone from the idols that held precidence over family or community, church or Jesus?”
I’ve been asking the Lord to show me what’s really missing from my life that I’m completely unaware of, but I desperately need. And to transform and refine me during this “surreal” time more and more into the image of His Son.
This is such a convicting and beautiful post. I hope you will link up at grace and truth laurensparks.net as well.
So much going on these days that we didn’t expect – and so much uncertainty about what happens next. It’s hard to keep track of everything going on in the world, and easy to be overwhelmed by it all. The only thing we can do is keep our eyes on Jesus and allow him to guide our priorities and decisions. May our faith and resolve be strengthened!
Thanks for linking up at Scripture and a Snapshot!
This is such a powerful and eye-opening post. I am trying to use this time to draw closer to Jesus. I do not want to live in fear but solely lean on Him. My prayer is that God will open our eyes to the evil we have been living in and how we need to give Him control of everything. Thanks so much for sharing!