In recent days, our lives, plans and agendas have been dismantled one by one. Things we’ve long taken for granted in our day to day living feel like they’re being pulled out from under us. We’re obsessively checking news feeds and then feel disbelief as we hear of the latest restriction. For me, one that particularly struck home was that I can no longer jump on a plane at short notice to visit family members interstate if they need me. Neither can they come here should the need arise.  What’s going on? Our society has become chaotic and unpredictable. The world has become chaotic and unpredictable. We have never experienced anything like this.

Uncertainty is one of the biggest fears we face, and we humans like to know exactly what we’re up to. Even though we Christians say we trust in the Lord for everything, I would suggest that we live (and I include myself) as though we are self-reliant. One verse from the Bible that is particularly relevant in these days of uncertainty is from James 4:13-16

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”  How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.  What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”  Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.  (New Living Translation)

One thing I do know is that God is unchanging and He sees the big picture of what’s going on in both the world and our individual lives. When I went through a particularly trying time several years ago, it was only faith in God that saw me through. He sustained me and helped me get through each day, and at times each hour. As we are fast learning, we can’t control everything in our lives.

Can I urge you to take some time out to listen to Mueller Community Church’s sermon on this past Sunday “An Eternal Perspective to a Temporal Pandemic”?  https://soundcloud.com/mccmedia-1/2203-an-eternal-perspective-to-a-temporal-pandemic-wayne-kuypers-peter-connor

I’d like to share the following poem “Lockdown” by Brother Richard Hendrick which he shared on Facebook on March 13. I found it to be a great encouragement and hope you do too.

 

Lockdown

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.