Do Not Fear

Can you remember a few short weeks ago when everything was normal? When we heard rumors about a virus in China but none of it was real or close? When we didn’t think a thing of hugging our friends and hanging out with Grandma at her house, buying the week’s supply of toilet paper or soap? When we came and went as we pleased and did as our little hearts desired every day?

It seems like a different lifetime. It’s amazing to me that life can change so quickly. We thought ourselves safe inside our bubble of society. We’d heard of history’s tales of pandemics, but we didn’t think something like that could touch us. Not in our modern world. We were invincible.

You know, it’s good God corrected our thinking. It wasn’t best for us to have so much trust in our human systems. It’s one thing to say we believe in him and follow him when doing so offers no personal sacrifice. It’s another thing when we are entrusting our lives to him. Suddenly, our faith is real. We realize that without him taking care of us, we are severely at risk.

But no matter how much we believe that God is doing a good thing, a loving thing, to teach us to trust in his ability to look after us, it’s scary. Perhaps more so now than in history, when no one was quite as connected to everyone else in a virtual way. We can see in nearly real-time the tragedy and fear rippling across the entire world. We know the facts - how we are exposed and vulnerable to a virus that seems to have no pattern, no easily discernible course of action. We know the mad scramble to figure it out as advice changes daily and sources tell us opposing views on how we should act or what we should look for. We know we do not have enough resources to help everyone who needs support. We feel the virus there, just out of our sight, lurking. Ready to strike. We feel powerless. 

Don't get me wrong - I’m glad we can connect. I’m glad our pastor can still speak to us every week, multiple times even, and I’m glad our small group can have a Zoom meeting and check up on each other. I’m glad I can text, Marco Polo, and see on Facebook how all my friends are faring. I’m glad that when I scroll through, there are multiple pastors and missionaries and evangelists, near and far, praying and encouraging and speaking God’s Word, perhaps in a newer and more tangible way than ever before. I'm glad we can see first hand how we should pray, how we can help, how our submission to the authorities is helping the cause.

But still, I have one worry. The one thing that keeps me up at night. The one thing that tests my faith more than any other worry I might have at this time. 

I don’t mind being stuck at home. I live for it. My daughter reminded me after this all began that I had been lamenting that big snowstorm we never got where “everything gets canceled.” Little did I know! But as an introvert, I’ve been feeling desperate for time where I don’t have to go out. Where I can sit and stare out my window and think and observe the quiet nuances of nature and weather and the way God made the world. That I have time and margin to think thoughts I can translate into words and stories that give God glory. To have all the time in the world to work to build my new garden out in the field, and help my daughter raise her new chicks. There is plenty to do here at home. And it is work I have so much heart for. In that, I don’t mind this at all. My husband already worked from home, our children have always been homeschooled, so our lives haven’t changed much at all, except for one thing, besides wondering where our next roll of toilet paper is going to come from:

Church.

You know, church is hard. At first, it was kind of relief to be excused from the constant coming and going with all the different activities the six of us can be involved in. At first, I was thankful for the breather. Our church has been through major changes in the past five years. Major. At times, I feel like I’m holding on by a thread as I remember all the things I missed about an established church with a pastor who’d been there for decades and all the traditions I’d grown up with that made me feel safe and secure. At times, I feel like I no longer have a place in the modern church that has formed in place of what I knew and loved. Like the things I was brought up to do in church are no longer relevant or desired.

I know that’s not true. I know God is still God, his Word is still exalted, prayer is still offered. Even in my new modern church. I still have a place, and I know God has and will continue to help me find it. But all this to say – I wasn’t exactly disappointed to have a break.

But now, if I’m going to worry, I worry that Satan will use this pandemic to destroy the church. Flatten it into nothingness. God’s people were made to be together, to sharpen each other. No matter how much time online you spend, it’s not the same as real, in-person relationship. And what if we come out of our dens after months of being apart and we no longer no how to be one body?

I can see the gentle smile of Jesus. His shaking head. His reassuring voice, reminding me I was never in charge of his people. The responsibility for their care does not rest on me, the outcome is not mine alone to bear. I don’t know why I tend to think it is. Maybe growing up a pastor’s daughter in a small rural church did something to my psyche to make me think I was accountable to make it all work. Maybe it’s my extroverted emotion, feeling responsible for everyone’s emotional well-being. Whatever caused this thinking, it’s not right.

God is not worried about his church. God knows he can care for it. God knows he already redeemed it, and set the Holy Spirit loose among his children, and that nothing this world can ever throw at it, no pandemic or lockdown or quarantine or financial crisis can ever hope to break it up. Satan will not win in his feeble attempt to knock out the structure of the Body of Christ. It’s just one of his last desperate attempts before God silences him forever. When we’re standing with the Lion of Judah at our back, nothing in front of us has hope of defeating us.

So take heart, dear brother or sister in Christ, for we have not seen the end of God’s glory. In fact, we’re about to see it in ways we never have before, in powerful messages of his love sent at just the right time. He is trustworthy, he is kind. He will not leave us or forsake us. He can be trusted.

These verses were meant for Israel during their time of exile, but the same God who spoke them through his prophet to his people, speaks the same message today to those who have been grafted in to his family. They are meant for you, Christian. Revel in the love of God through Christ.

“Do not fear, Zion;
                do not let your hands hang limp.
                The Lord your God is with you,
                The Mighty Warrior who saves.
                He will take great delight in you:
                In his love he will no longer rebuke you,
                but will rejoice over you with singing.”

– Zephaniah 3:20

Seeing Opportunities in the Obstacles

Introverts everywhere may be rejoicing at the mandate to stay home and cancel all the things, but there’s no denying the days we are living in right now feel very strange. It’s amazing how quickly everything can change. It’s sobering to realize how close we are to the line where we have to trust God and not our security and comforts.

But we can trust God. And you CAN enjoy this time. You can catch up on all those things you always say you just don’t have time to do. Read. Cook. Bake. Clean. Walk. Relax. Play games with your family. Plant a garden. Tend your trees and bushes. Organize, purge.

Sit still. Be still enough for long enough that you start to hear the still small voice. God is still speaking. We just have such a hard time listening. And what else would God be saying, in allowing this virus to make such a global impact, that it is time to be still and listen to him. To trust him to take care of us. We have been taking care of ourselves for so long that we have forgotten the rich blessing it is to entrust an unknown future to the God who is already there, and who loves us enough to bring us through it.

Some verses for your first day of the new normal, at least for the next couple weeks, and maybe longer:

Deuteronomy 31:6 - “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them; for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Isaiah 26:3 – “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you.”

Isaiah 41:10 – “So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Psalm 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

John 14:26-27 – “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

God’s got this, friends. Let’s take him at his word and not be panicked or worried. Let’s do the opposite of hoarding and looking out for ourselves. Let’s give and watch out for others around us. Let’s be like Jesus. He didn’t back down when he had an opportunity to show extreme love.

We don’t have to, either. We’ve got his resurrection power running through our veins if we know him. More than enough to take this on.

What about you? How are you coping with the increasing restrictions and uncertainties? What Bible verses are you relying on right now? What ideas are you implementing to be the hands and feet of Jesus during this difficult time?

Check back tomorrow! I'll give you my best tips on homeschooling that I've learned in twelve years as a homeschooling mom. I'm definitely no expert, but I can give you some tips that will help the task seem a little less daunting. 

Good Friday?

On this morning, only a couple thousand of years ago, a man waited below the house of the high priest in Jerusalem.

A prisoner. Surely many prisoners had been housed in that dungeon, dreading the moment they were handed over to Rome for execution. Some may have deserved their fate, some may have been victims of a corrupt system governed more by rule-following and prestige than by their law they claimed to love so dearly.

But this prisoner was different. He was truly innocent, not only in matters of the law, but in all matters. He was the perfect Creator of the universe, captive only to his love for his people and to his promises made from the beginning of time.

But why do we call this day Good Friday? The day our Lord was betrayed by friendship’s kiss cannot be good. The morning after a night of slandering, the morning dawn brought cruelty in the form of beatings, mocking, and a sentence of death can't be good. Those who had followed him and praised his teaching and even watched him raise the dead to life … now scorned him. Disowned him. Left him alone without a single soul willing to stand up for him and risk the same fate. How can it be good that he suffered, and that he suffered alone?

His disciples couldn’t even stay awake to pray with him the night before such an evil, terrible day. 

So why in the world would we call this day “good”? What could be good in such tragedy and betrayal? How could we celebrate a day that found humanity at its worst, violently attacking and killing the very being that gave them the breath of life and formed their bodies within their mothers’ wombs?

We call it good because it is our only hope. We call it good because there is no other way, not by sacrifice or self-discipline or scientific exploration or by the pursuit of world peace … THERE IS NO OTHER WAY we could be saved from our sinful souls.

It is a good Friday when I know that cross, meant for shame and torture and death, is a glorious trophy to exchange one day for a crown I don’t deserve. I can call his suffering and death good because he endured every single moment until it was finished … for me. Because he loved me. In my sin and ugliness and weakness and failure, he loved me.

And we can call it good because it wasn’t just one person he loved, but every one of us. His sacrifice was accomplished ONCE FOR ALL. Anyone who will turn from their sin and look to his cross for forgiveness and new life may come and receive freely the abundant gift of eternal life. No questions asked. No qualifications or conditions. The price has been paid. Cursed humanity has been ransomed.

Only come. Receive. Have faith.

And Friday is good only because of one enduring, eternal truth. Friday is good because Sunday is coming. Death didn’t keep him. The grave was forced to give him up. Friday is good because it was the only way we would know that our Savior is strong enough to take on the enemy we could never, ever conquer on our own.

Jesus is alive.

On Being a New Creation

 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.The old has gone, the new is here!2 Corinthians 5:17

If you haven't spent a lot of time with a butterfly, you may have the impression that becoming one is a simple, automatic thing. Awkward little caterpillar is transformed, he pops out of his chrysalis and flies away on a happy little breeze surrounded by sunshine and flowers.

Not so much.

My 6-year-old son loves bugs. He found a crop of black swallowtail caterpillars on the parsley in the garden and brought them all inside to raise. I was all for raising 2 or 3, but he found 9, so we've been doing this for a while. The only thing you really have to do is give the caterpillars fresh parsley to munch on, provide a few sticks for them to crawl on ... and clean up poop.

Caterpillars poop. A LOT.

After cleaning up an inordinate amount of bug feces, we were finally rewarded with a tank full of sleeping caterpillars undergoing transformation. We kept them moist and watched. And waited. For days.

Isn't it just like God to create something like the butterfly? What person would come up with the idea of morphing a slowpoke crawly creature into a winged beauty that defies gravity and flies off into the sky? When you really think about it, the butterfly is a miracle. We can't recreate it. We can't hope to understand what happens while that caterpillar sleeps. God makes something completely new out of a totally different creature.

But is this change automatic? Does the caterpillar know he's different? From watching butterflies fall out of their chrysalis, I can tell you most assuredly they have no clue. They flop and fall and freak out as they drag slime everywhere. They panic and try to crawl like a caterpillar only to have the huge growths on their back keep them from getting anywhere. They fall off the stick over and over again until finally they decide it's better just to be still and they find a place to hang out. That's when things begin to change.

Why the science lesson? As I watched this little guy today, I couldn't help but think about us. When we humble ourselves before God and admit we need Jesus, that we're nothing on our own and we are in dire need of a transformation, things change. But it isn't an automatic, everything is happy and wonderful change. Usually, it's a fairly awkward and somewhat slow change. We aren't going to be everything God intends for us the moment our faith is born.

I think of it more like a line. We have a starting point, when our faith is new, and an ending point, when our faith is realized and we are home with Jesus in glory. All along this line between the two, we are changing. We're getting closer to that final result, but we're not ever "done" if we are still breathing.

All this to say, we're all works in progress. Judging other Christians or ourselves based on a standard of perfection will always reveal problems. The questions to ask are "Am I growing?" "Do I have more of a love for Jesus than I did a year ago or ten years ago?" "Has my maturity level in spiritual things gotten better, even if slowly, over time?"

God isn't finished with us yet, fellow flopping butterfly. Someday we will fly. Let's be open to him doing his work in us, and let's be loving as we help others around us who may have just fallen out of the chrysalis. 

Let's be all about the process of becoming new creations, because some happy day, we will be finished.