Tuesday, March 24, 2020

The fast we didn't ask for.

The other day someone told me that they hoped the quarantine would be over before Palm Sunday so that it wouldn't ruin Easter. Understandable, but then again, maybe this pandemic is more serendipitous than we realize. It is the season of Lent after all, which is a time of giving things up. Where we attempt to let go of the physical world so that we may be in a better position to take hold of the spiritual one. Yet because of circumstances, we all find ourselves in where we must go without. Maybe we should not let this moment go to waste, maybe this happened now of all times because God is telling the church that we've gotten far too attached to this world and its comforts. That it is an invitation to seek him in a more intimate way.

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. -2 Chronicles 7:14

Why do you think some people are panic buying? Is it not because they do not want to endure going without basic comforts and convenience. If you honestly believed that this world is all there was, why wouldn’t you respond in a self-centered way that could be detrimental to others. Yet, since they are all fixated on what they must go without right now, they are condemning themselves to misery, even with their stockpile.

Yet for the believer, I would encourage you to seize the moment and seek what you might have been neglecting within your faith. It is always a good time to grow after all. Even when we don't know our next move, or all else seems to be at a standstill, we can always seek spiritual maturity through prayer and study. So often when we are waiting on God, he is actually waiting on us to seek him.

May I suggest, instead of asking for a quick end to all this. Ask what good can come from it all.


a man so entangled by the world he can not seek higher things.
click to enlarge