Because we are given to self-interest, the first place our minds tend to go when hardship comes to town is bewilderment. We can’t begin to understand how or why God would allow pain to come our way. Eventually, by His grace we usually come to the place where we’re willing to admit that God could use even our hardship for our good and for His glory. We, after all, have always been impressed by His creativity. We can’t even make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. He can make sows, purses and universes out of nothing. So, yes when God gives us lemons, we’ll cry our tears, and then make the best of it by making some lemonade.
What we don’t often do, but ought always do, is look at the hardships He sends as opportunities. What if I told you that for weeks on end the whole of the believing world would become obsessed with the possibility of dying? What if I told you that you would have a whole month of Sundays when there would be no sportsball games clamoring for your attention? What if I told you that whole nations that bowed at the feet of their government leaders were about to find out their government leaders had feet of clay?
Would you be excited to hear of these opportunities? Or would we miss them? John F. Kennedy, hardly a man known for great wisdom, said, “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis be aware of the danger—but recognize the opportunity.” The first part of the counsel is important- we do need to be aware of the danger. I’m not suggesting that when crisis comes, whether it comes in the form of a pandemic, an economic meltdown or some other unpleasantness that we should go through our days with maniacal grins on our faces. I am saying we should go beyond acknowledging God can use hardship and instead give thanks for it, and look for our calling in the midst of it. If we would live our lives coram Deo, before the face of God, then we had better carpe diem, seize the day.
Our Lord has appointed us as His stewards over the creation. When He returns He will require of us an account of how we have managed the talents He has put in our hands. Will we look at Him, as we look over the spring of 2020 and say, “What could I do? You sent such a crisis.” Or, will we instead be able to say, “I saw the opportunity You gave us and I moved forward with it.
God tells us that it is the wicked who flee when none pursue but that the righteous are as bold as a lion (Proverbs 28:1). We, of all the men in this world, have been given by the God who made us a fear of Him, and a love that casts out every other fear. Our calling is to live in light of that truth, in good times and in bad, until He comes again.