Getting Past Covid

We never know the future. Someone quipped that when they were forced to leave the Garden, Adam said to Eve, “My dear, we are now living in times of transition.” Ever since the Fall our times have been uncertain, and whether things are good or bad we know that change is coming.
 
Covid has especially changed our world. We are still searching for that “new normal” that was predicted when it all began. Asaph the psalmist wrote of uncertainty of his age when he penned: “We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be” (Psalm 74:9). As he continued in writing, the Spirit impressed on him a simple truth about God:
 
The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made both summer and winter. (Psalm 74:16-17)
 
As he contemplated the greatness and unchangeableness of God, a peaceful and calm spirit guarded his heart. I believe we need this same spirit in these days. No matter what the new normal will look like we can be sure of these truths.
 
God has not changed: He is still the same as He ever was and He is able to do today what He has ever done. He will guide us, bless us, use us, give us peace, provide for us, make us useful and fruitful. We are to serve in His power and God has all power, so whether easy or hard, known or unknown, God will be with us as we serve Him.
 
The Mission of the Church has not changed: The Great Commission is as important today as it ever was. God does not have two plans for the church – one for good times and another for difficult times. He has entrusted us with the same mission regardless of how easy or difficult it might seem to be to us.
 
The need has not changed: Churches have always been at their best when we take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on the needs of the world, when we have looked at the fields “white unto harvest,” and trusted God and looked to see how they may serve Him and His purposes in their generation.
 
Innovation is not dead: God never changes. The world is still lost without Christ. The gospel and the mission of the church are the same throughout this age. But methods change, techniques adapt, and innovation is important for every generation. We will discover that the Spirit will lead international and multicultural churches around the world to continue to worship, to serve, to love, to witness, and to meet.
 
Plato in his classic work “The Republic” wrote, “Our need will be the real creator.” This insight led to the development of the English adage: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” As Christians, of course, we look beyond just the need alone and see the Lord who has always led His people, and we can say with the apostle Paul, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13).
 
A Lesson from Robert Raikes: In the 18^th century England, public education was not a right of the king’s subjects. Raikes, a businessman, was bothered by the social scourge of the uneducated children in his native Gloucester, England, that poverty led ultimately to sicknesses, vices, crime, and prison in a vicious downward social spiral. Education of the children, he believed, was the only solution. In 1780 he was inspired to start the first Sunday School in his own home, initially teaching the uneducated street children how to read and write, and his main textbook was the Bible. 
 
The result? Others caught the vision and other schools were begun. Lives were changed, poverty and crime decreased, the riotous streets filled with bored street children changed into more peaceful places. Charles Wesley wrote in 1784, “I find these schools springing up wherever I go. Perhaps God may have a deeper end therein than men are aware of – Who knows but some of these schools may become nurseries for Christians.” 
 
When there is a great need there is a great opportunity as well.  Whatever the future holds, God still holds the future.

David Packer

MICN Pastor Care