When catastrophe strikes, such as the current Corona Virus Pandemic, it is easy to welcome the thought that maybe our liberator is at hand. Maybe today He will come and take us out of our earth-bound turmoil and gather us up with all the believers on earth, past and present, and remove us from this climate of woe. With so many uncertainties that lie ahead, there will be few who are not feeling the weight of anxiety as the fall-out from the lockdown proceeds. How appealing is the thought that we might skip the next page of history.
Whatever our circumstances prove to be in the coming weeks, one thing is certain. Our faith will be tested. Can God be relied upon to secure our earthly needs when our livelihoods have been brought to a crunching halt? Will earthly mechanisms have enough in storage for the whole world, all at once, and just how far can the combined human budget be spread?
This current crisis is set against a very different back-drop from those like it in the past. Whereas once we relied on the community to pool its resources, this may no longer be the case, as the plug has been well and truly pulled from the sink of human unity. In recent years, all the trends have been to isolate rather than to gather. People feel less need to make human contact now that everything can be organised and provided for on-line, and less concerned by how their actions impact others. We have discovered that we hardly have to leave our homes at all, and if it weren’t for the few strong friendships we have maintained, for the most part we could look no further than ourselves and the internet to survive.
Jesus popped a telling question about his return: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on Earth?”(Luke 18:8).
Will we join those who disappoint him, or will we now especially, hold on to Him more firmly than ever? Never has our witness mattered more.
Barry Struthers
Whatever our circumstances prove to be in the coming weeks, one thing is certain. Our faith will be tested. Can God be relied upon to secure our earthly needs when our livelihoods have been brought to a crunching halt? Will earthly mechanisms have enough in storage for the whole world, all at once, and just how far can the combined human budget be spread?
This current crisis is set against a very different back-drop from those like it in the past. Whereas once we relied on the community to pool its resources, this may no longer be the case, as the plug has been well and truly pulled from the sink of human unity. In recent years, all the trends have been to isolate rather than to gather. People feel less need to make human contact now that everything can be organised and provided for on-line, and less concerned by how their actions impact others. We have discovered that we hardly have to leave our homes at all, and if it weren’t for the few strong friendships we have maintained, for the most part we could look no further than ourselves and the internet to survive.
Jesus popped a telling question about his return: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on Earth?”(Luke 18:8).
Will we join those who disappoint him, or will we now especially, hold on to Him more firmly than ever? Never has our witness mattered more.
Barry Struthers
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