What a surreal few months these have been. It is of course now obvious that a pandemic is well and truly afoot in the world — I write this because maybe, like me, you were watching the news about something going on in China back in January, and were reacting with some kind of suspicion to claims that it could turn into a world-wide problem. There have been so many hypes and hysteria about so many things in our lifetime. The media tends to latch onto something and you don’t hear anything else, but that for weeks — was this going to be one of those things again?
Oops! And here we are.
Yet, we are right to read the news with a suspicion. The media’s reports are biased to whatever the outlets want us to hear. This is actually unavoidable: there is no such thing as unbiased, purely objective, reporting. We all bring our worldview into whatever we do and say. Therefore, it is paramount for us as God’s people that we use the news to inform us, not transform us. This can be tricky when we are reading about something that is close to home, something that impacts our everyday lives. And Coronavirus is no longer something ‘out there’, it is pretty much everywhere.
So: Coronavirus. An unseen killer, it is reported to be. It is that. Let that inform you, and take care. But don’t let it transform you into living in fear. Let this transform you:
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”
(Psalm 91:1–2)
This is going to be important for us as we start phasing out of lockdown: While at home, we felt safer, but we can’t stay home forever. As God’s people we have the encouragement in this Psalm not to: let’s start moving back to normality trusting in Him, and so return to our jobs, start socialising and — praise the Lord! — come back to church.
We will believe something. Whereas I ask that you take whatever you hear in the media with a pinch (sometimes a big dollop) of salt, I also ask that you unreservedly put your trust in what you read in the Bible. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)
Calix
Pastor
August 2020
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