Friday, April 24, 2020

Another Friday is well underway. I recall the years when my coworkers entered the office with cheerful greetings of  “Happy Friday!” or “Thank God, it’s Friday.” I may have been the only one who didn’t get the reverence accorded the last day of the work week; I knew in two days we would just start all over again the countdown to it. That aside, this Friday, on its downside as I am unusually late in my posting, I have as my Peace in His Presence offering the following encouragement: “Faith is being… certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) I am supplementing the scriptural reference with quotes from Corrie ten boom. If you’ve never heard of her, she was a Dutch watchmaker who with her family members helped Jews escape the Nazis from the Holocaust during World War II before she  became a prisoner of the concentration camps herself. She survived and went on to start a rehabilitation center for survivors and a global ministry that taught the power of forgiveness. She came to mind when I heard a minister quote her during my  walk this morning.

Ms. ten Boom wrote, “Never be afraid to trust an unknow future to a known God.” When Rev. Anderson read that quote I almost skipped! Is not that sentiment right on for our present situation? Wringing our hands, bemoaning the restrictions, complaining about what we aren’t able to do like we used to, and all the “poor us” expressions brought on by the pandemic really point to distrust of the God we claim to know.  Yes, the future is a question mark right now. The only certainty is the God we profess; the God in whom we trust and are certain of even when we do not see the end of the  present crisis.

Consider just a few of the quotes for which Ms. ten Boom is known: “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”  “It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.”  “Let God’s promises shine on your problems.”  “Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.”  And my favorite for this era of pandemic, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

Let’s summarize. Worry today saps you of what you my need to cope with what tomorrow has in store. Doesn’t scripture advise us of the same? See Matthew 6:34. When God allows a curve ball to disrupt our normal, how we respond is what will be measured. By those who come after us, and most surely by God. Aside from the practical precautions we take, what better way to battle this pandemic than by opening our Bibles and claiming the promises therein as our spiritual weapons.

The train we’re on is going through a virus filled tunnel. Its speed is such that we can’t jump off, and even if we did, the places we might land are themselves infected. Our only hope for survival is to trust the engineer himself – Jehovah. This is not His first trip. He’s been conducting trains through tunnels since the creation of  passengers who have  boarded them.  Again, scripture tells us what to do, “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

In stillness, we have the opportunity to exercise the concept of faith: the belief that what may elude us for the moment is still a certainty in God’s hands. Until Monday.

Love. Joy. Peace.