Ed, my old neighbour in Saskatchewan, is annoyed with people who feel they know it all. He says, “In this pandemic that confronts us, we have more than our share of authority figures telling us what is indispensable for us to do.” My old neighbour complained of having bad dreams about being back in school again, where he was expected to do what he was told. He does not want to experience the heavy hand of authority during this pandemic as he did as a kid at school. At school, Ed felt some rules were to be treated as suggestions that need not be followed if no teacher was near.
Rules and signs like, Handicap Parking are ignored by many folks. It’s challenging to keep all laws, even those meant for our good and the well-being of others. Rules are inflexible; they do not bend or stretch. Going over the speed limit is breaking the law, not bending or stretching it to suit our speed preference. One of the hard things about school is the fact there are other children in our class, and the other children force us to share and care about them as well as ourselves.
It is hard to learn at any age that life isn’t just about me. Retirement teaches us that we are not indispensable, as our work or profession goes on without us. Only God is indispensable and infallible. The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that when it comes to us, there is no such thing as knowing it all, or doing it all, or having it all. Sometimes, God calls the whole world to open their minds to Him, and close their mouths, as those who need to be informed by him. Is this our time to discover we do not know nearly as much as we need to learn? Until this pandemic overtook us, many thought they could know and answer everything by using Google.
We live in a world filled with endless opinions and confusion. For Christians, the Psalms ask if it is our time to turn to God and to be still before Him? As the deer pants for streams of water do our souls thirst for the living waters of God in His mysterious word and person? Is our hope in God as our Saviour and Lord? Is He our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble? As our regular lives disappear, in the power of the COVID-19 pandemic, will we remain without fear? Have we become proud and haughty before God as if we need not confess our sins before Him? Only God can blot out our iniquity and create in us a pure heart and a steadfast spirit within us. Does not God delight in our sacrifice to him of a broken and contrite heart?
The prophet Isaiah reminds us our relationship with God is indispensable and we must seek God today while he may be found. Let God’s word show us our wicked ways and our evil thoughts. It is our time to turn to the Lord in repentance for our ways and thoughts are not His. In His mercy, He will freely pardon us in our faith in His Son Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection for us.
