The world is being shaken. In just a few short weeks everything has changed. Plans have been shelved. Nothing is predictable. We have lost control of our lives. Having been led to believe that we can commit our schedules and promise fulfillment down to the last nanosecond, suddenly we can’t even determine when or if we can go to the grocery store.
Why is this pandemic so different than others? The stealth of the coronavirus. So unpredictable and in many cases quickly lethal. It’s mysterious, unmanageable. Not limited to sexual contact but drifting in the air we breathe or even alive on inanimate objects.
This generation has become accustomed to control. We humans determine major issues, like working environment, health, leisure, beauty, sexuality, eye color, and even whether someone gets to live at birth or whether someone else, at the end of the journey, need not wait to die. We have controlled major sports and communications and the stock market.
And suddenly we have lost control—totally.
Could it be that God is dealing with our penchant for control? Could it be that He is calling us to return? Why is fear filling so many hearts at this time?
How can the church please God in this major, surprising, earth-shaking crisis?
Can we call all of us human beings to repentance with pain and tender love? We have all been ungrateful. We have all basked in our ability to act and make things happen.
Society is yearning, crying out, for a clear voice. A voice that will announce God’s tremendous saving mercy along with a clear call to remorse for having taken God’s goodness and blessings for granted. And repentance for having wrested control from His hands.
But our words must be accompanied and surrounded by actions and attitudes of grace. Food pantries, checking on the neighbors, accompanying the more vulnerable and the dying, careful and personalized, razor-sharp use of social networking. Those who are full of fear concerning their safety and concerning the future need us. We can be the Lord’s go-betweens at this time “as if He were pleading through us, ‘Be reconciled to God.’”*
*II Corinthians 5
