This has been a particularly hard week. It’s rare for a day to go by without learning of another friend or colleague who’s been afflicted with COVID-19. Some are very mild cases or more inconvenient than anything else. Others are facing more serious experiences with the disease and a few are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I’ve had friends and groups of friends touched by the sting of death this week and others who are facing very dire circumstances.
There’s a lot of gloom in our world right now. The area around Findlay is getting hit hard with COVID-19. It’s become apparent that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. The next few months are going to test us in ways that we may not have been tested thus far. There’s a general sense of weariness nearly everywhere. There’s a lot of fear right now from all kinds of perspectives: fear of illness and death, fear of losing a loved one, fear of losing employment, fear of losing freedom and many other fears. We all know that fear is a natural human response. We all experience fear and yet one of the most frequent commands in scripture is “fear not.”
Over the next several months we don’t need to be fearful, but we do need to be sober and wise. The days ahead are not going to be easy for many of us. The days of difficult decision making are not yet behind us. For many of us, we’re going to have to walk through a fair amount of gloom, sadness and grief and help others do the same. We need to be people of hope who point our fellow humans to the source of our hope: Jesus!
In the middle of our gloom, the beautiful promise of Isaiah 9 lifts our eyes to the hope we have in Jesus! I’d encourage you to walk through chapter 8 as well – I think it will resonate with much of what we’re experiencing today.
I know that these are gloomy and distressing days but take hope! Our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace will bring these gloomy and distressing days to an end!
Hold onto Hope my brothers and sisters! Hold onto Jesus.
Christ’s Peace,
Lance
Isaiah 9:1-7
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
CGGC eNews—Vol. 14, No. 49