The coronavirus pandemic: Hope and comfort in these increasingly uncertain times

These are uncertain, frightening times for you and for me and for our families and friends. Thousands of people have died in our nation and around the world, and many thousands more will die in coming days and weeks, all because of the coronavirus pandemic.

And here’s a startling development: Health officials have discovered that a tiger in the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for coronavirus.  Several other tigers and lions are showing the same symptoms.

That raises alarming questions:

Does that mean the coronavirus will spread to other animals—cattle, chickens, pigs, and fish? If so, what will that do to our food supplies?

Could our pets catch the virus from other people’s pets? Could sick humans infect their pets? Could we catch coronavirus from our cats and dogs?

Talk about uncertainty!

At this time, when our thoughts dart wildly in every direction, when our hearts race and we fear what we and our loved ones are facing in coming days, it’s good to remember God’s role in our lives. We need to remember we can trust in His presence and His sovereignty in our lives.

Psalm 139 is a rich resource for you.

It reminds you that God Himself knit you together in your mother’s womb (verse 13). He made every part of you with His loving care:

“You were there while I was being formed

in utter seclusion.

You saw me before I was born

and scheduled every day of my life

before I began to breathe.

Every day was recorded in your Book!”

(Psalm 139: 13-16, TLB)

The NIV Study Bible says that Book is “the heavenly royal register of God’s decisions.”

That reminds me of what God says in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you.”

Pastor Ray Noah writes, “God is so involved in my life that he was even there at the moment my mother and father conceived me in love, and while I was in the womb, he superintended even the most infinitesimal details of my physiological and temperamental formation.”

Ray says, “I find great comfort and security in knowing that God has my life so ordered that I will neither die a day sooner nor live a day longer than what has already been recorded in his book.” (Click here to read Ray’s encouraging post, “Psalm 139: My Days Are Numbered.”)

Experts predict that in the coming week or two,

death tolls will rise dramatically.

But let’s be honest.

Despite the passages in the Bible

and reassurances from pastors, the big question,

 the elephant in the room is this:

Each of us wonders:  Will the coronavirus kill me?

My loved ones? My friends?

I worry about those of us in North America, but I also worry a great deal about my dear friends in Kenya. (Click here to read Urgent prayer for Kenyans during the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to read Please pray for Ugandans’ desperate needs during coronavirus pandemic.)

Ray Noah reminds us that according to Psalm 139, God “can be completely trusted to keep me safe until the Divinely allotted number of days ordained have expired and then take me to the next life that he has prepared for me.”

I hope that gives you peace. I hope that encourages you to relax in God’s loving arms, knowing He has good plans and, whether sooner or later, He will eventually take you and your loved ones Home to be with Him, a perfect place beyond what you or I can imagine.

May the God of hope

fill you with all joy and peace

as you trust in him,

so that you may overflow with hope

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

(Romans 15:13)

Do we even want to live out God’s purposes for our lives?

You might think I’m strange, but one of my all-time favorite Bible verses is Acts 13:36 (NIV), “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep [he died]; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.”  

Why do I love that verse? Because David must have died in peace. He must have died a fulfilled man. David died with the satisfaction that he had served God’s purposes for his own generation—that is, for his lifetime, for his time on earth.

When my time comes to die, oh, how I long to know I served God’s purposes for my generation!

But there’s a tug and pull to that, a back and forth to that.

Remember what I told you last week? I was afraid I couldn’t trust God enough to take a wild-eyed, stomach-cramping, howling leap of faith and give up a steady income and good health insurance and, instead, live on a small and unpredictable missionary income.

 

Mt. Kilimanjaro; Linda K. Thomas photo

And yet, could it be that if I refused to trust God to meet our needs, and if that led me to decide not to go to Africa—might I fail to serve God’s purposes for my life?

I admit to having a weak faith. I admit to doubting God’s love and power and provisions. But my heart also soars when He reminds me how faithful He has been in the past.

I am a slow learner, but over the years,

I’ve come to believe that

one key to being willing

to trust God is this:

We must remember

God’s faithfulness

and help in the past.

When I remembered God’s specific help

to my husband and me fifteen years earlier—

when we had a financial crisis on the mission field—

I grew more willing to trust Him

for our future financial needs in Africa.

(If you missed last week’s post, click on

The Power of Remembering.)

I confess I have lived in far-from-perfect ways. Besides doubting God’s care, I’ve made selfish choices, spoken hurtful words, failed to act with love and generosity, and on and on and on. But somehow—by God’s mindboggling grace—He cleans us up, and—mindboggling again—He invites us to pursue the unique purposes He created each of us to fulfill.

“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace—

only that it meets us where we are

but does not leave us where it found us.”

Anne Lamott

Only because of God’s grace can I hope He can use me—flawed as I am—to implement the purposes He created me to fulfill for my generation.

Yes, when my time comes to die, I long to know I strived—even though imperfectly—to fulfill God’s purposes for my generation.

How about you?

If we are going to fulfill the unique purposes

God has for each of us for our generation,

what specific decisions must we make—right now?

What actions must we take—right now?

We can trust that God’s purposes for us are good.

 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’

declares the Lord,

‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Jeremiah 29:11, NIV

How many grandmas have run from a charging hippo?

“By tomorrow, Maggie, you’ll have lived on this earth for two months,” I wrote to my new and only grandchild, “and I’m scratching my head, trying to figure out how I can be your grandmother from way over here on the other side of the world.

“I always imagined I’d be a traditional, quaint grandma like my grandma, the kind that sits in a rocking chair and knits baby blankets.” (from Chapter 1, Grandma’s Letters from Africa)

Yes, I dreamed, and expected, I’d grandparent in the ways my beloved Grandma Mac had. You couldn’t ask for a gentler, kinder, more loving grandmother. She was soft-spoken and preferred to live quietly in her home, a home full of love that she and my grandpa had created. I loved them with all my heart and their home was always a safe, happy place.

Grandma was always doing things for others—sewing, knitting, or crocheting clothes for her grandkids.

And cooking delicious meals. Sundays after church, my parents, little brothers, and I used to pile into the family car and drive the hour to my grandparents’ home. Usually my aunts, uncles, and their families were there, too, and we enjoyed gathering around Grandma and Grandpa’s dining room table. They lived on a tight budget but Grandma always served delicious meals, often featuring vegetables and fruit from her own garden.

That was the kind of grandmother I planned to be, I longed to be—but, instead, I lived half a world away from my granddaughter, Maggie. And I just knew my son Matt, and his wife Jill, would some day have another baby. And that my daughter, Karen, would one day marry and have babies, too.

It broke my heart to live so far away.

And my grandmothering couldn’t have been more different from what I expected.

In Africa, I stumbled into adventures most grandmas could not imagine. I wrote this to Maggie:

“How many grandmas have drunk tea in a pot cleaned with cow’s urine, or run from a charging hippo? How many grandmas have cooked breakfast over a fire, only to have a baboon poop in it? How many grandmas have jumped out of the way when a Maasai elder spit at them?”

Here’s what was happening, the “why” and “how” I ended up in Africa:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

(Isaiah 55:8, NIV)

We humans make plans, but the Lord has the final word. . . .

the Lord decides where we will go.

(Proverbs 16:1, 9 CEV)

That information helped me take a new look at what God was asking me to do—but I admit that, at the time, it seemed both God and my husband wanted me to willingly allow a tragedy—living half a world away from my kids and grandkids.

But, Samantha Conners writes:

“God doesn’t call us to do things

in order to make our lives terrible.”

And so, long story short, I moved to Africa.

Eventually, I would learn that God’s plans for me were good.

And, despite the pain of being separated from family,

our years in Africa turned out well.

Come on back next week and I'll tell you about it!