I realize that my take is not apt to make any search engines roar like a Lamborghini. I can’t even claim that it’s “true.” Since COVID became a thing I have routinely put on my prophetic pantaloons and declared, “Heck if I know.” I have friends who insist with the utmost vigor that it’s a tempest in a petri dish and I have friends who can’t squeeze into their bunker without squeezing the Charmin they’ve crammed in there. And to both I’m honestly able to say, “You may be right.”
There are three basic reasons why my magic 8-ball keeps coming up “Maybe.” First, never before has an illness been so politicized, nor has there ever been a time of hotter political rhetoric. Second, this involves science which is not my strong point. Third, this involves math which is the next not my strong point. I didn’t know in March and I don’t know today. So what do I have to say about it?
Something has changed. COVID has gotten close. While the inconveniences along the way have always been part of my life, the illness itself hasn’t. My immediate family has been untouched. I haven’t lost a single close friend to the illness. That said, in the past few days COVID has touched people I care about. My pastor, as I type, is in the hospital. He is expected to be released soon. His family has suffered from it and has been through quarantine. Another friend from church is also in the hospital, dealing with Covid while in the middle of a battle with cancer. It’s no longer something “out there.”
This, of course, doesn’t change the answer to the question, is COVID just this year’s flu or this century’s black plague? I still don’t know. It does mean, however, that I’m upping my precautions. Better still, it means I’m upping my prayer regimen. We would be wise to remember that God doesn’t send circumstances principally so we might change them. Rather He more sends circumstances that they might change us. We’re supposed to be learning, and responding out of what we learn.
As we pray for the safety of those whom we love, we grow in our capacity to love them. As we pray for deliverance to the One who loves us, we grow in our visceral grasp of our dependence on Him. As we pray in repentance for ourselves and our nation, we grow in our understanding of the breadth of our sin, and from there, in our understanding of the scope of His grace. That’s what I’m asking you to do. Would you pray for the deliverance of those close to you who are impacted by this illness? Would you pray in agreement with me for those close to me? Would you pray for deliverance from this hard providence? And would you pray in repentance for your sins, the sins of the church and the sins of the nation?
We don’t need to know the answer to the question. We need to rest in the Answer.