In Pandemics, Riots, & Political Chaos: Live Well, Love Big, Fear Nothing

Is it just me or is anyone out there wondering if the sky might truly be falling?

It doesn’t matter if you’re on this side, that side, or the “um, I’m so confused” side…we are all aware of the crazy in the world right now.

We all know that the world we knew just months ago seems to have kind of exploded. A virus, racial tensions, and political corruption seem to rule the day.

And sometimes I feel like it might ruin me.

Do you?

Sometimes I wonder what I have to look forward to with a future that just seems so bleak. I’ve honestly never taken less joy in looking to what’s ahead than I am right now. It feels so…easy…to sit in fear because it seems everywhere I turn something is waiting to steal my joy, my comfort, my certainty, and my dreams.

And sometimes I wonder if I should even make plans? Who knows what tomorrow holds. I mean I used to know. Right? I used to know what was coming. I used to know for sure that I’d see another day, another month, another year…didn’t I?

Now, you’re going…hmmmmm…maybe not.

And you’re right.

What we need to realize right now and even take comfort in is the fact that the future has never been certain. Living to see another day as we know it isn’t just now something we can’t count on. The world has been horribly sinful since the fall of man, tomorrow has NEVER been a guarantee and each day has ALWAYS been a gift.

And sometimes it just takes saying it out loud for it to hit home. Our generation (if you’re anywhere near my age) was born into a comparably easy era if you look at those that came before, so we just don’t know what to do when the reality of the world in which we live suddenly smacks us upside the head.

But now it has. And we are baffled, frustrated and afraid.

We are seeing that nothing we hold dear on this earth is certain. We see that all we know can change in a moment. We see that history and the mistakes of its dwellers only repeat themselves. We are just as prone to suffering as anyone who has ever gone before us. Let’s take a little wisdom from King Solomon (Ya, know…the wisest guy to ever live? Yeah, him).

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecc. 1:9)

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Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this… (Ecc. 7:10)

We may like to deny it, but none of us can control the future. None of us knows what’s coming. That’s how it’s always been and always will be. So here’s what I’d like to try and do:

Instead of trying so dog gone hard to control everything (because I can’t), instead of always having to be right (cause I’m probably wrong more than I realize), instead of acting as though those who are using their power and influence for wickedness might go unpunished (as if God does not see all), instead of spending so much time in fear of the future (because the possibility of hardship didn’t come into being in the past six months), instead of living in denial that life is short, our time here is brief, and all good things must come to an end…

I’d like to start embracing each and every day God gives me with joy and gratitude, to treat my loved ones like it might very well be my last day and so cherish time with them all the more, to be more discerning on whether this current frustration is a hill worth dying on, and if it is, to love my “enemies” realizing they need Christ in this short life just as much as I do, to stand for truth but always in love and without fear because I know the God of all truth is holding and sovereignly controlling every moment this world spins, to get over my spoiled self and realize I’m not going through anything new, anything more than the rest of this world has ever suffered, to still find joy in the small things, to stop being so afraid.

I have to stop letting this whole thing ruin me.

Solomon had a good thing going when he wrote these words of wisdom so long ago. He lived a long, full life and tasted all it had to offer. This was his advice to those who would come after him

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as longs they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil–this is God’s gift to man… In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him... (Ecc. 3:12; 7:14)

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, fo this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecc. 12:13-14)

There is nothing new under the sun. The world is what it has always been.

Man is still sinful. God is still good.

Each day is still a gift to be cherished.

And this is why, dear friends, through pandemics, riots, and political chaos, we can still choose to live well, love big, and fear nothing.