Reflections on Twenty-One: Disciplined by a Faithful Father

It would be a challenge to accurately sum up all the events of this surprising year of my existence. New opportunities arose that felt simply wondrous, while there were also trials that brought grief. "Each strand of sorrow has a place within this tapestry of grace" [1]. Do you ever have moments where you pause to thank the Lord for the finiteness of your mind? I am grateful He is omniscient and I am not. Because this trip around the sun held challenges I would not have wished to walk through, I find myself praising for how He in no way warned me about the unexpected uncertainties to come. 

It was in year twenty that COVID first hit and my adventures of bedside nursing assistant care changed from the norm. But, thankfully, the coronavirus saved its most challenging trials--as far as my inpatient experiences go--for this year. 🙃 Before, I would have a COVID patient here and there and most of my experiences were very interesting, full of learning and curiosity to discover more about the new disease process. Then things got a bit heavier as our unit nearly maxed capacity with almost all COVID patients for an entire month in the winter. 

After watching a documentary on missionaries who fought Ebola, I had always romanticized pandemic health care--wouldn't it be amazing to be on the cutting edge of science and epidemiology, bearing the light of Christ to many people nearing death? How heroic I thought such missionaries to be...entering into the chaos and bringing a healing touch. Thus, I was enthusiastic about being a CNA in a pandemic. Let's rescue the COVID patients of the world, shall we?! The thrill did not subside until I reached a point of being unable to keep up with patient care, due to an extremely high census, and I began to see death, after death, after death. This was not what I had pictured..... Aren't we supposed to be saving the world together? A particular challenge of fighting new diseases is that there is very little information off which to base care, so health care providers have effectively been blazing new trails in the treatment of the coronavirus. So, tragically, while the cure for critically ill COVID patients remained unclear, we watched a number of patients gradually reach demise, with a few recoveries here and there. 

I will note that these experiences did not cause me to conclude that our world should be eternally locked down and masked. There are so many individual takes on how our world should have responded to COVID; there were both mistakes made and effective strides taken to fight for patients' lives. It is a bit of a challenge to work in health care during these times in the world in part because people begin to assume how I must feel about all things related to certain buzzwords like vaccines, masks, shutdowns, herd immunity and the like. As is usual for me, I did not necessarily follow the crowd in my reactions, but I deeply desired to expose the light of Christ to patients nearing death through the darkest days of COVID. I will be forever grateful for each coronavirus patient I had the honor of caring for with a remarkable team. 

If we as health care staff believe our hearts were broken over the losses of our challenging fall and winter, let us also remember that God's heart went out to our every suffering COVID patient. We have a genuinely caring God (Is. 54:8b) who indwells the life of every believer. Therefore, every Christian health care staff member never once entered a COVID patient room alone. No, Christ--who is Himself the Great Physician--entered with us. He was present when we saw slow but certain declines of health; he was present when we rushed to put on PPE for a code; He was present as our hearts ached over units that at times felt more like morgues than places of healing. 

Though it is true that some health care staff in the world burned out of this field through the challenges that abounded, others of us concluded more deeply than ever that this is where God desires for us to be--at the bedside, covered in PPE and our patient's bodily fluids, standing with vulnerable people in their most devastating or most joyful of moments. 

Aside from new frontiers of health care experience, God was also leading me through moments of testing--did I really count Him my all? Would I truly give my everything up in surrender to His purposes for my life when things became painful, uncertain and did not go as I planned? God did not allow these to be mere theological questions in my head, but real experiences of year twenty-one. It's incredible how misguided my heart can be and how tragically blind I sometimes am to my own weaknesses. Oswald Chambers once spoke these simple, convicting words: "His is the future, not mine" [2]. I can mentally know the reality that Jesus holds my entire past, present and future in His mighty hands, and yet live out my day-to-day practical experiences as though it's fine for me to go my own way without consulting His wisdom. Thankfully, He is a gracious Father who confronts the places in our lives where we know the truth in our minds, but have not so well applied it to our lives, through His grace. 

My heart chewed on personal hopes, whims and wishes in contrast with what I was convicted I must do. Reading through a book on prayer, God graciously led me to pause and examine my life: "It's not pray this much, surrender this much, and you get [the answer to prayer you desire]. Nope. God doesn't work that way. He answers prayer with what's going to glorify Him the most" [3]. We have a God who prioritizes His glory above our comfort, ease, dreams and desires. This is not because He does not care about our needs and desires. He is our faithful protector and ever provides for us perfectly, after all. In the book of Isaiah, God proclaims powerful words that help us more fully grasp how incredibly vast and omnipotent He is:

"'You are my witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; you are my witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'and I am God. Also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?'" (43:10-13). 

In a self-obsessed society, it does us some good to bow our hearts before the reality that we serve a God who is so far above us. We do not fully grasp how worthy He is of our full surrender; our lives did not come to be so that we could go after our own dreams, but so that, through His enabling grace, we might walk out His eternal purposes for our lives. Elisabeth Elliot says it boldly: "Real satisfaction and joy come in response to acceptance of the will of God and nowhere else" [4]. Betty Scott Stam was a woman who would be tested on this exact reality. Prefacing the words Elisabeth Elliot would later echo in her book, Betty once prayed: 

"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever" [5].

She fully gave her life over to God's purposes. And God's plan for this young missionary and her husband was for them to share the Gospel in communist China, where they would both be martyred before reaching age thirty. 

I bet young martyrdom is not on your bucket list.

But sometimes obediently carrying out God's purposes for our lives means going uncomfortable places.

Are we willing to give up all our own plans, purposes, desires and hopes to the God of glory?

The young martyr may not have known the cost of her surrender would be so high, but she had a devoted soul that counted no cost too high for the One who had paid for her salvation with His blood: "When we consecrate ourselves to God, we think we are making a great sacrifice, and doing lots for Him, when really we are only letting go some little, bitsie trinkets we have been grabbing, and when our hands are empty, He fills them full of His treasures" [6].

When we honestly assess the state of American Christianity, there is such a grave bout of the disease of self-obsession. We want our dreams and we want to think we're spiritual for pursuing them rather than praying "Thy will be done" (Matt. 6:10). We want relaxing, comfort-inducing experiences that feel refreshing, not self-expenditure for God's purposes. We want to live by the wisdom of the world and conclude that we are yet strong Christians, glorifying God as we speak profanities and live idly just like the lost. 

Does your heart long for more? Mine does.

I'd happily be unpopular if that is a ramification of believing wholeheartedly that the entirety of this one short life is not meant to be lived by my own objectives, but radically given over to Christ for the building up of His kingdom rather than my own.

Tim Shenton gives us a peek into the cost of historical Christianity and the stark realities we often do not believe to be "necessary requirements" to live the Christian life, when in fact we must all be this devoted to Christ. To belong to Jesus means not merely to follow Him when it is easy, but on the hardest days, having full loyalty to the King of kings.

"The Gospel is the same in every generation and our faith in the unshakeable and immutable truth of Christ should be as strong now as it has ever been [...] How many of us believe Jesus Christ deeply enough to be ready to die for Him if the hour called for it. Could we take off our dancing shoes and put away our lives of merriment to take that long and lonely walk to the scaffold or be willing to lay our head on the guillotine block? [...] How deeply and firmly do I believe in Christ? Am I so embedded in Him that nothing and no one will be able to uproot me? Is Jesus Christ so important to me that if [...] I was threatened with imprisonment or death, I would be ready to take those steps down to the dungeon and to hold out my hands to the chains of my enemies? [...] There is no one but Jesus Christ who is worth following and dying for. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, waiting with open arms to welcome His saints into eternal glory, just as He waited for Stephen, the first New Testament martyr" [7].

Do we want to be haphazard Christians who reflect the world, or intentional disciples being transformed more fully into His likeness? 

"Obviously there are two kinds of greatness recognized in the Scriptures: an absolute, uncreated greatness belonging to God alone, and a relative and finite greatness achieved by or bestowed upon certain friends of God and sons of faith who by obedience and self-denial sought to become as much like God as possible" (A.W. Tozer) [8]. 

Discussions of surrender are not new to my life since God deeply pressed my heart with the cost of following Jesus the days leading up to when I gave my life fully to Him in childhood. I knew it would be difficult and joyful to live for Him. Yet, year twenty-one contained moments that did not reflect an abiding trust in the One whose ways are always higher than mine (Is. 55:9). Amy Carmichael once warned: "We cannot allow ourselves to become entangled and still believe we will have spiritual power" [9]. But even having hand-written this quote into my journal years ago, I was not so well living out its reality. 

In the depths of COVID, I struggled to push back the weight of discouragement, quickly believing my feelings rather than consulting how to apply His truth to my circumstances. In seasons of exhaustion, we need an unwavering focus upon our God who never fails. "Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil" (Proverbs 4:25-27). Perhaps knowing this reality, I yet lived as though our locked down world would be a dark and ugly place from there on out. I was not so very hopeful, but at times writhed with pain, as I wrote about here. 

What a gracious God we have. By January, I would be walking through particular circumstances God had set up to confront my weary soul. 

For months I had planned to photograph the March for Life at the end of January for a Michigan-based nonprofit, but sadly the trip was canceled. Eventually, I connected with another pro-life organization and agreed to capture the March for Life for them instead. One night, only days prior to the event, I stepped into the hospital parking lot as I arrived for an upcoming shift, glancing at my phone as I closed the car door, only to discover a text telling me I was now called off for capturing the March for Life for this organization as well. The March for Life's staff had decided, for the first time since Roe v. Wade, there would be no national March for Life. I grappled with this reality; how could we tell the world that just because there was a pandemic and unrest we would then cut down on our efforts to stop something with a death toll far higher than COVID deaths and local fatalities combined? But I was not in charge and it was now my job to move on.

Days later, an email popped up in my inbox. Would I still come to photograph a different pro-life event at a nearby location? 

Fast forward six days, and I was sitting in my local airport, having arrived many hours prior to the flight due to familial schedule conflicts. Here I was, much too early and not a soul in sight that I knew. What to do with this free time?....God had gone before me. 

I opened up my Bible with the intent of having a half hour of reading and prayer, with a plan to quickly move on to developmental psychology homework afterward. Instead, the book of Galatians utterly stopped me in my tracks. So much for speeding through a passage. There was too much beauty and truth before me to do so. 

A brief look at the first few chapters and some cross-references caused me to pause; am I living in step with the truth of the Gospel (2:14)? Am I living a life reflective of the truth that I have been redeemed by Jesus Christ who became a curse for me, that I might be set free (3:13)? Am I redeeming the time, knowing that the days are evil (Col. 4:5-6, Eph. 5:15-21)? I was convicted that I had been living based on the goodness or roughness of my circumstances, rather than disciplining myself to walk out each day in light of the Gospel. Ever had one of those seasons you just deeply need to be disciplined by God? I am so grateful He does not ever abandon me despite my weaknesses and sin. He is a faithful Father who uses everything--including fluctuating circumstances--to land me in an airport long before departure as to get me alone with Him. Like a parent pulls their fit-throwing toddler aside for a discussion about the needs of their heart, so God ever-graciously arranged a moment for me to be called out and called higher in following Him.

In all honesty, rather than being an example of excellence like Betty Scott Stam in my life priorities of year twenty-one, I much more so reflected a fit-throwing toddler in the depths of my heart, needing my Heavenly Father's correction. I do not deserve His patience, but when He graciously disciplines us, we have a joyful opportunity to grow closer to this Savior of ours who has such amazing grace that He yet saves and sanctifies a wretch like me. 

Hoping to not have years like twenty-one again any time soon, but if it produced opportunities to know Jesus more deeply and be corrected by His loving instruction, it was utterly worth it all. 

"The soul's deepest thirst is for God Himself, who has made us so that we can never be satisfied without Him" (F.F. Bruce). 

--

[1] The Perfect Wisdom of Our God by Kieth and Kristyn Getty
[2] McCasland, Dave. Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God: The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest. Discovery House, 1998. p.55.
[3] Gunn, Robin Jones, and Tricia Goyer. Praying for Your Future Husband: Preparing Your Heart for His. Multnomah, 2011. p. 171.
[4] Elliot, Elisabeth. Let Me Be a Woman: Notes to My Daughter on the Meaning of Womanhood. Tyndale House Publishers, 2004. Forward.
[5] Ibid
[6] DeMoss Wolgemuth, Nancy. “Betty Scott Stam: A Life of Surrender.” Revive Our Hearts, 21 Apr. 2016, www.reviveourhearts.com/blog/betty-scott-stam-life-surrender/.
[7] Shenton, Tim. John Rogers--Sealed with Blood: The Story of the First Protestant Martyr of Mary Tudor's Reign. Day One Publications, 2007. pp. 7-8.
[8] Tozer, A. W., and Gerald B. Smith. Evenings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings. Moody Publishers, 2015. October 7.
[9] Carmichael, Amy, and David Hazard. I Come Quietly to Meet You: An Intimate Journey in God's Presence: Devotional Readings. Bethany House, 2005. p. 46.

A Little Guide for Discerning COVID-19 and Other Small Topics

Do you ever take an earful of the news into your mind and feel a bit disturbed these days? I know I do. I was floated to a different unit than I typically work in recently, and nearly every patient seemed to have alarmist news channels on their TV. It's crazy; I've had the privilege of working in critical care during the pandemic, and I can tell you that didn't freak me out the way the news sometimes does.

How can we know if we're being fear mongered or being provided with accurate stories and data?

I am here to challenge you not to mindlessly swallow whatever the media is attempting to force-feed you. Spit it out a second. What is in there? What are you being told? Where did this data come from?

You don't have to be an expert to research and draw a conclusion!

I may not be an epidemiologist, intensivist, or even yet have my college degree, but I have a few key things:

1. Eyes to See

I can observe what is happening around me; I can read research.

2. A Mind to Think

I can critically examine data I find. What are the stats? How have health systems, countries and communities responded to COVID-19? What did they do well? What do I believe they could have done better?

3. Available Information

Lots of data about the coronavirus is available not merely to experts, but to the public. What information am I consuming? Only news from journalists, or do I read the data directly from the source?

If you are in college, you have access to Proquest. You can also use Google Scholar. Read the data with your own two eyes, and ask some questions:

-What is the credential of this researcher? Are they a doctor, nurse practitioner, epidemiologist?

-Do they in any way monetarily or politically benefit from the conclusion they have drawn? (We see this happening in major news sources regularly).

-Everyone has biases. What biases may this researcher have?

-What is the data saying? What is an appropriate response to the data?

How can I apply this to the coronavirus?

Begin with recognizing that you do not have to be an expert in the field of infectious disease or critical care to think about and study COVID-19.

1. I can use my eyes to see -- What am I observing? What is happening around me? I can use my eyes to look at data.

2. I can use my mind to think -- Have I attempted to critically examine what is going on around me? What are the stats? How have health systems, countries and communities responded? What did they do well? What could have been done differently?

3. I can examine available information -- COVID data is not a hallmark preserved only for epidemiologists and intensivists; there is a lot of information available to the public. What information am I consuming? Where are these sources from? Be wary of drawing conclusions solely on reports from journalists who only share their personal interpretation of the data, rather than putting the data itself before your own eyes.

Dear Christian, this is especially for you; do not forget that we are not promised a disease-free, comfortable life as believers. Remember that we live in a world that delights in lies. Are you actively using your own mind to study, try cultural trends, and cling to Biblical truth? Do not be easily tricked into the manipulation of information, fear-mongering, and peer-pressing happening each and every day through these current events. By God's grace, I will not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of my mind (Rom. 12:10).

I encourage you not to be one of the people who embraces a lofty, nasty attitude. I've seen so much of this; we will vary on our conclusions on what was done well and what went way wrong in response to COVID, but we know that God has called us to walk in love and humility toward one another.

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through Him" (Colossians 3:12-17).

Resolve not to cave to hateful assumptions, hushed gossip, or unnecessary arguing. Use your mind for God's glory, refuse to be conformed merely for the sake of acceptance, and dare to think! Don't look back on the post-shut-down days and see that you weren't purposeful. Make intentional choices about what media you consume and create. Do not numb your mind for the sake of pleasing those around you; rise above that temptation.

"For you are children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ [...] Test everything; hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:5:-9, 21-22).

Live for Christ indefinitely! Nothing matters more in this life than to know Jesus; our godless society may mock our nonconformity to the simplistic conclusions of this world, but at the end of the day, I will give report to God--not my peers--for the life I have lived (Matt. 12:33-37, Rom. 14:10-12). 

As previously stated, I am not arguing that all Christians will conclude in the same manner about the pandemic. With the wonderful way God has created so many unique minds, I'm certain different individuals will raise distinct concerns, ideas, and interpretations of the data. But how much better it is, by His grace, to use the minds He has given us for His glory, seeking to discern these troubled times rather than to bow our heads and mindlessly accept whatever voice in our culture currently screams the loudest. I will not live that way; perhaps more than any other time in history, we have so much information and data before us, waiting to be sorted through and discerned by a mind in which Christ is exalted as the greatest thinker of all time. 

God is all wise, and as we cry out to Him for help to make sense of how to best live for His glory in a mightily ungodly culture, He will guide us. Drench your heart in His word. Love Scripture more than all the data, all the books, and all the research; ultimately, there is no higher authority on anything than the Author of our existence. No one better grasps infectious disease processes, the economic ramifications of the shutdown, prevention of viruses, or living in a polarized society. God is not absent through these odd times; He is with us; He knows all the answers. As we are baffled by our own lack of knowledge, we find comfort for our souls in knowing the Omniscient One who is never taken aback by any tumultuous event our world ever faces. 

In summary, jump in! Discern, think, study, and read for yourself on the topic of COVID-19, but don't stake your hope on the things you learn or conclusions you draw. Primarily look to Christ, remembering we are only temporarily dwelling on this earth and will someday go home where our true citizenship lies: in heaven. If all the data told me I have a 110% chance of dying of the coronavirus today, in no way has my hope been taken away, for my soul is in the hands of the One who created the world and intimately knows every microorganism at such a level of comprehension that is untouchable to even the greatest scientists of the world.

Rise up, my friend. Think well, and love Christ most of all.

Finding Perspective and Refreshment for Our Souls During Unrest

Well, it's June now! We have officially survived the Coronavirus shutdown and the civil unrest occurring in our nation. Even now that we are free to do more than simply grocery shop, there is still a sense of weariness and exhaustion that seems to settle over many of us in our day-to-day living. I was at work one day, caring for a patient, when the TV in their room suddenly reported tragic, forlorn news; story after story, the media was telling me how horrible the Coronavirus is out there. And certainly it has devastated many families, individuals, countries and economies. But the media has a way of taking the tragedies that happen all over and bring them all to you; creating a strong opportunity for information overload.

Suddenly, we feel the temptation to panic. What will we do about the virus being so communicable? Is there going to be a second wave? How about this civil unrest? How long will mobs and riots continue?

There is a great blessing about being able to access so much information at the tip of our fingers, but with it can come additional opportunities to cave to fear.

Have you been feeling that at all, in your own life? Do you feel more prone to panic? Have you felt chronically exhausted, not sure when you'll ever feel refreshed again?

Here are four questions to ask when you're endlessly weary:

1. Where I am I turning for refreshment?

The age-old saying: "You are what you eat" has some truth to it. What has your mental consumption looked like lately? What are you reading? What apps do you use repeatedly? What shows are you watching? What podcasts are you listening to? Are you setting things before your eyes that lift your heart to the Savior or that cause you to question where He is? Are you taking things to heart that are Biblical?

This culture is post-modern in a number of ways, one being that there is not a belief in hope amidst uncertainty unless we can make a scientific proof for that hope (such as hand hygiene, for example, to give us hope of preventing the transmission of COVID). I'm all for taking safe measures to prevent pandemics. I'm not all for depending on the seen and the felt. I cannot see God, but He is the One I look to for hope. Rest for my soul is not found in hand sanitizer and keeping six feet away from those around me. This is a good practice for preventing the Coronavirus that we should continue for the time being, but it is not where I place my ultimate hope.

When my heart is weary, I do not look to the CDC, WHO and news channels to tell me if I should cling to a shred of hope or not. Even when the worst has come to worst--as we thought might occur at the beginning of the COVID outbreak--my heart does not have to be overwhelmed.

God knew altogether, before the foundation of the world, that we would face the challenges that have presented before us. 

So even while I continue to do my best to keep my hands washed to prevent COVID transmission, I will not look to this world to tell me if I have permission to hope or not. I have a hope that cannot die: Jesus Christ!

Just as it has been true in every other season, now, in the midst of so many challenges, our hope is in the Gospel. Our God is the One who transforms broken souls, brings redemption through the impossible, and revives people from spiritual deadness.

"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain [...] Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ" (Philippians 1:21, 27a).

While we are beginning to return to normal life as much as possible, may our hearts first and foremost seek God. May we not get caught up in the hype, anger, and confusion around us, but may we set an example as the people of hope that we are. Because of the sacrifice of Christ's life, we no longer look to the events of this world to keep us optimistic or cause us to fall forlornly to the floor. No, our Savior is the One to whom we look.

While Paul was imprisioned, he wrote to Timothy:

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the Gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day" (2 Timothy 1:7-12, emphasis added).

My future hope lies not in this life. So when current events spiral out of control, by and through God's grace, I will be anchored to true hope. I am being cared for and watched over by the God who created the immune system, upholds the universe by His powerful hand, paints the backs of ladybugs and directs each person's life story. He is intricate, He is intentional, and He is incredibly present through the uncertainties before us.

We have this ever-living encouragement for our souls:

"So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable truths, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 6:17-20, emph. added).

2. Have I prayed about it?

When your heart is weighed down, where is the first place you go? To a friend? To post about it on Twitter? To the scientific studies, as an attempt to disprove your worries?

Scripture tells us where to go when this life feels like too much: "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7, NIV). 

We are not meant to be self-reliant, but to be utterly dependent upon our mighty God, so don't be terribly surprised when the events of this world remind you how much you're insufficient to handle it all alone. You weren't created to deal with it alone; we are in desperate need of our Savior. "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belongs deliverances from death" (Psalm 68:19-20).

If something has bothered you enough to worry you, it's definitely time to pray about it. Are you concerned about catching COVID and going on a ventilator? Are you worried about the future of our nation? Are you uncertain about the economy? Then lift it up.

I'd recommend not just praying in passing as you drive or work (though it is great to pray as you perform your daily tasks); make an intentional effort to set your full attention on pouring out your heart before God. We know that as we cast our cares upon Him, He will sustain us; we will not be moved because God is our strength (Ps. 55:22).

Allow these troubled times to cast you more fully upon the Savior. "O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come" (Psalm 65:2).

3. Am I making an effort to serve others?

It's easy to stay in our own little world when risks of illness and unrest are all around us, but what does it look like, in this season, to serve others?

Focusing on your own needs, problems, and challenges is certain to multiply the sense of stress, fear and uncertainty within. Ask yourself a few questions: what are those around me facing? Who can I serve, and what would be an appropriate way to serve them while we attempt to prevent further sickness? Can I write someone a letter? Can I pick up the phone and call a loved one? Can I meet a financial need?

It's convicting how many times I evaluate my own life--especially when I'm feeling anxious--and quickly see how much time I've spent thinking about me, and how little care I tend to truly invest in others. This is a propensity many of us have, and it will not die without intentionality.

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 5:13-14). 

You will have to make a purposeful decision to look into the needs of others, even while you may feel that your needs have not yet been met. Jesus delights in this kind of faith: "Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and He saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And He said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on'" (Luke 21:1-4).

4. Have I been in the Word? 

In times of highest joy and lowest grief, we need the Word of God. Whether the world seems sweet or sorrowful, our hearts must be steeped in the truth of Scripture, for there we find the guidance, refreshment, perspective and conviction our hearts so deeply need.

If you were to compare the amount of time you spend on social media, news and TV with how much time you spend in the word, which is your greatest investment? We can easily say we love the Word, but what are our lives truly declaring? Have we prioritized pursuing Christ above our daily tasks? If not, don't be shocked when an entire day has come and gone and you haven't read even one verse. Our day-to-day tasks still exist and must be accomplished, and we make sure those get done, but how strongly do we prioritize being in God's Word? Do we hold out and keep reading even when it's challenging, seemingly dry or does not make sense? Or do we quickly give in to distraction and speed-read a favorite passage instead?

Slow down. Open your Bible, and ask God to use it to transform you. Even if you don't yet see any growth or change in your own life, or haven't experienced any specific moments of inspiration in your reading, God is still working. The Bible is not a book like any other:

"For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). "Forever, O Lord, your Word is firmly fixed in the heavens" (Psalm 119:89).

You cannot expect to deeply know the Savior to whom you belong if you are not in His Word. Don't first and foremost go to the Facebook page of Christian leaders, looking for an opportunity to refresh your soul and grow in Christ; run to Scripture. "The unfolding of your Word gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple" (Ps. 119:130). It's not the same to read a book about the Bible or a Christian devotional with a few Bible verses in it. You need the real thing, for yourself, with your own two eyes.

What has to change in your life and schedule so you end up in His Word every day?


There are still uncertainties in our world. There are still questions we have not yet answered, but we know where to run with our pains, anxieties, and concerns. By God's grace, may we be people with a faith that endures challenges and grows stronger when difficulties multiply. What if we looked back at 2020 thirty years from now and saw it as a time we turned to God, looked to His Word in all things, and brought every overwhelming situation before His throne? What a testimony that could be of God's endless faithfulness to sustain us! This painful season does not have to be wasted if we will utilize it intentionally for His glory. Pour out your heart before Him and trust His ways as higher than ours. He has not left us, but gives us so many opportunities to know Him more in these post-shutdown days.