Our Hope Is Built On Nothing Less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I am now a statistic – someone who has had the coronavirus. And I join the millions of others in saying that. In the midst of figuring out timelines, working with the health department, trying to balance my own mild symptoms, and then thinking about the virus as a whole, I’ve realized, once again, we are losing perspective, and I so easily can too. I know I’ve hit on this idea before, but more than ever, thanks to quarantining, I’ve had time to ponder what covid has done to our lives. Our faith. Our perspective. And ultimately, our eternal perspective.

We have been inundated with how we should be dealing with, viewing, and processing the virus. All it takes is one click on the internet and you will be thrown an opinion. A perspective. What is deemed as “truth”. It is mind-boggling, mind-spinning, and completely overwhelming, if you ask me. And if you’re anything like me, you try to filter what you hear because it can easily become too much. What is truth? What is fact? What is opinion?

I’m not here to answer any of those, except to stand up for THE Truth. Jesus Christ. I am not here to start arguments or jump on bandwagons. Nor am I diminishing those who have lost their own lives or family members, due to this virus. That is not my intention, nor my platform. My platform is solely to proclaim Christ, his blood, and righteousness.

And in doing so, I want to ask some of the hard questions. Challenge our perspectives (including my own). And bring back to light, why we are here.

Anytime something becomes more important than the gospel, we’ve got it all wrong. Anytime an agenda becomes something more than the advancing of Christ’s name, we’ve got it all wrong. We’ve lost sight of why we are here. When we post something on our social media accounts or jump on a bandwagon for a cause, are we doing so for the advancement of the gospel? Or for the advancement of our own way of thinking and cause? Is it bringing others to salvation or causing division amongst our fellow brothers and sisters?

And this is where I believe the verse from Deuteronomy 29:29 grants us the peace our minds are striving for. And for some, this will bring no peace at all, and for others, this will be a breath of fresh air.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

Have you ever considered that maybe there isn’t a “right” answer to the coronavirus? That maybe statistics aren’t ever going to make sense because God is choosing to not reveal the “why” to us? That maybe a vaccine will never be fully successful? Maybe in our limited human minds, God knows we will never fully understand why he is allowing what he is, so he is keeping it silent? Maybe we don’t need to know because he knows it would only lessen our faith and make us not fully rely on him? Plus, we can’t ever fully know the whys or know what he knows because we aren’t God! God will ALWAYS tell us enough for salvation and gaining eternal life. But the other stuff, even though he has given us incredible minds to learn, study, and research, at the end of the day, we have to ultimately realize that all knowledge falls under the realm of God and it’s HIS choice whether to reveal what He deems necessary, to reveal to us. We should never stop learning. Or trying. But at the end of the day, what trumps it all? Is it our desire to be right and to know? Or is it’s God’s sovereignty and providence? God shuts our eyes to things for a reason and may our salvation and hope rest in the character of who God is, not in our own knowledge.

Not only does God sometimes shut our eyes to the whys, he also has created us to be much more than physical beings. I’ve been hospitalized way too many times for my heart failure. A chronic disease that will forever be a part of my life. The times when I’ve been hospitalized more than 3 days, I’m always asked if I want to see a chaplain. I always appreciate the question, though humbly decline because I am beyond blessed to have the spiritual and pastoral support my spiritual heart needs. But that’s not the point. The point is that when I am asked that question, I am there because my physical heart is failing. Physically, something is not working properly and it needs extra support. And much like my physical body needs mending and care, so does my spiritual heart. They recognize that in order for me to heal, I need that spiritual support as well. For this has taught me that in a hospital, it’s not just the body that is broken and in need of care, but our spiritual lives too. So when I hear the cultural battle of whether churches should remain open or not, and it’s not loving to keep them open, I can’t help but question, who are we? Are we just physical beings? In the hospital, I am treated as a physical, emotional, mental (thank you social workers!), and spiritual being. At what point does one trump the others? I go to the hospital for my physical well-being. And I attend a church for my spiritual well-being. Since when does one trump the other?

I was painting the other day and I could’ve cried when thinking about the division that has occurred in our culture. Even in our little town! The fight our churches have had to have to stay open. I couldn’t help but think in broader terms of the world. There are NUMEROUS countries in our world where you would be persecuted for going to church. For going to an underground church. For having a Bible. For saying the name Jesus. There are people in other countries who would be martyred for stepping into a church and here we are, advocating to close our church’s doors? There are people literally dying to have what we have. To have a church to freely worship in, despite ALL the unrest around them. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt a virus would stop them because before that, hunger, poverty, social unrest, and persecution are already in the way. And here in America, our churches are dividing over masks and whether they should stay open or not. If I lived in another country and knew this was occurring, I would be weeping, longing to have what “they” have. When we have the freedom to worship our Savior, we shall never take that for granted and when we do, remember those who are dying for what we have.

The school my daughter attends is still open. The cases have been relatively under control and the teachers and administrators are working their tails off to ensure that they stay open. I’ve heard countless parents say how grateful they are for that, including myself! But I can’t help but question, if we are encouraging, hoping, and cheering for our schools to stay open, why are we not doing that with our churches, with the same fervor? It pains me to think that we are putting education over our spiritual health. I think we are losing perspective. So let me bring back to light, why are we here?

We are getting caught up in our own nation’s issues, statistics, rules, and regulations, losing sight of who we are and whose we are. Like I mentioned earlier, travel to a 3rd world country and you will see pandemic after pandemic happening. Again, I’m not trying to diminish what is happening in our own country and the fact that people are losing their lives (not just because of the virus). But we also have to realize that we have also been spared of so many other global issues. Think of how many people die EVERY DAY from these issues: War. Genocide. Hunger. Political instability. Lack of access to natural resources. Clean drinking water. Health care. Other health issues such as AIDS/HIV, malaria, etc. The reason I put a period instead of a comma after each one, is I want us to just make us think about each of those. On a daily basis, how many are we personally faced with? Yes, we may know others who experience these pandemics and global issues on a daily basis. But how about us personally? It makes me cry. I have a hard time talking about these issues without crying because we are losing perspective. Where is our push and advocacy for these issues? Where does the gospel play into these global pandemics? Where can we proclaim Christ and his righteousness? We need Jesus.

Amidst the pandemic within our own country, we need to realize that earthly health does NOT set us free. Nor does it give us eternal life. If our hope is either put in not getting the virus or just trying to survive the virus, we’ve lost perspective. Trust me, I’ve had to challenge my own thinking, after getting the virus myself. Of course, when we are sick, the wise thing to do is care for our bodies and do what we can to get better. Once again, God calls us to care for our bodies. But if our sole goal in life is to live a long life physically, we’ve got it all wrong. It’s healing of the spiritual heart, that gives us eternal life. We will ALL die. No one on this earth will escape death. And no one on this earth can change the days that God has already numbered. He’s already got it written down, before the beginning of time (Fact check me with Psalm 139 it if you don’t believe me). And if we put our sole focus on surviving this one pandemic, yet neglect our spiritual hearts in the process, we are losing sight of what eternal life means.

At the end of the day, what is our goal? What is our perspective? Where is our hope found? When I was in the ICU at the University of Michigan, between my 2 surgeries, my organs started to fail. Even though I wasn’t all there, I vividly remember the nurse practitioner coming in to tell me the news that if there wasn’t improvement in the next few hours, things were going to get very serious (as if they weren’t already). As my husband and I cried, I will never forget what Dan said to the NP. “We believe in a sovereign God and whatever happens, happens. We trust you.” Thanks to the prayers of many and God’s grace that night, I did not have to be cut open, have bypass pumps attached, and basically saran wrapped back up, in hopes I would make it to another surgery. I can’t give an earthly reason why God allowed me to be okay that night. I can’t give an earthly reason why God allowed me to get covid and have very mild symptoms, even though I am considered high risk with having heart failure. I can’t give an earthly explanation of where I got the virus from. And I feel like if I did have earthly answers, then it would diminish the power of who God is. Sometimes not having answers, only elevates God as our God even more. My answer? Only God. No faith is needed when there is always an answer. For faith is being certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). But it’s in the no-answers. The silence. The shutting of the eyes. The confusion. The pain. For that is where our faith grows. That’s where God is held high as King. As THE SOVEREIGN King.

When my grandpa was in the nursing home, on one of the bulletin boards, the residents could write what they wished for. I will never forget the answer my grandpa had written on this little yellow piece of construction paper. “The salvation of all” (or something just like that). Cue the tears.

Our hope in life should never be built on something more than Christ’s blood and righteousness. So as we all seek to find meaning, purpose, and life during our own pandemic, may we not forget which cause we are fighting for. Is it the salvation of all? It’s the only cause that will matter in the end. And when we insert a “but” in our explanation, we’ve got to retract. Either our cause is salvation and the advancement of the gospel, or it is not.

There is no in between.