Pandemic

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Galatians 6:9-10 NKJV

I am processing the news that we are being asked to “stay in place” another 30 days. I am an introvert by nature and seclusion is not normally a personal hardship for me, but the realization of a month in confinement is making me claustrophobic as I think about it. I know, there are things I can do that will stretch my legs and move about, but I have that “caged animal” feeling going on inside of me right now. That said, I am a part of a nation that is going through a pandemic. I understand that this virus is simply inconvenient for many, but a death sentence for some. I am continually reminding myself that Christ asks me to prefer my neighbor, live selflessly, and as Paul said, “do good”. For in doing good and practicing endurance, this season will change, and a harvest will be reaped.

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“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3:8 NKJV

There should always be a few head-scratching verses in the Bible which make you stop and ponder. This passage stuck in one of the most familiar chapters in all the Scripture has been one of those verses for me. I mean, who doesn’t know John 3:16? For many of us we memorized that verse in a Sunday School class too many years ago to remember. However, long before you get to that sixteenth verse, you must pass through verse eight.

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“For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.”

Job 3:25 NKJV

The story of Job has some complexities associated with it. A righteous person is enduring much suffering and pain. It opens the can of why bad things befall the believer. It is obvious in the book that God is pleased with Job as the conversation is recorded between the Lord and Satan. Yet, Job faces unparalleled adversity and suffering.

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“Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

James 2:17

I have recently read two great books from the same author (Matthew Bates) entitled, “Salvation by Allegiance Alone”, and “Gospel Allegiance”. Both books are definite recommendations, especially if we find ourselves in an extended lock-down period and looking for some spiritual download. This pandemic post will not be able to do a review of the books, but they are the springboard to some of the thoughts that are running around my brain today.

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“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. He was the founder of what has become known as logotherapy and is most notable for his best-selling book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”. In the early years of ministry, I actually read or reviewed that book on a nearly annual basis for his observations were both fascinating and compelling. In the book he writes of his experiences in a Nazi Concentration Camp. Through that experience he comes to the conclusion that there was one defining difference between those who survived and those who succumbed to that horrific evil and injustice. Those who survived had a deep sense of purpose, meaning, and a future. Those who did not survive had lost hope, a sense of meaning, and had become cynical. Frankl suggested that the primary motivational force of an individual, especially in a crisis, is the search for meaning. He concluded that life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.

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