Greetings fellow quarantined friends. I trust you are all sheltering in place, only venturing out for essentials. Rough news increasing around the world. We continue to pray without ceasing.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
(James 4:13-15)
So many cancellations, delays, changes, and disappointments. Minor disappointments and heartbreaking grief of loss. So many things we have counted on or taken for granted now gone, delayed, or upended—for a season or permanently. If this crisis teaches us nothing else, it should crush that any delusion we may entertain that we are in control. We are not sovereign, but God is.
The world has changed. God has not. ”Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) Do I believe that? Really? When the rubber meets the road, can I lean into His sovereignty and trust His character, no matter what happens?
Today, I invite you to pour your heart out to God. Many of you have done Pete and Geri Scazzero’s “Explore the Iceberg”. Pull out your journal and set aside four pages titled mad, sad, anxious, and glad. Begin to write what’s in your head and in your heart. We need to write because things will flow out of your pen you may not have realized were in your head or heart. Know that many items will wind up on multiple lists. That’s okay. Especially right now, we are a jumble of emotions and thoughts.
When you have spent some unhurried time pouring out your soul, bring the entire jumble before God. Surrender to His sovereignty. Lay every detail out to Him. Write a prayer or even a psalm to the Lord. Invite the Prince of Peace to rule in your head, heart, and hands.
My prayer is often, “Lord, meet me where I am, take me where you want me to be.” Invite Him to meet you in the depths of your iceberg, then spend some time remembering and rehearsing who He is—His names, attributes, character, past faithfulness in your life. Selah: take some time in silence to let Him whisper to you.
May I invite you to sing and meditate on one of my favorite hymns:
The Solid Rock by Edward Mote
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Lean into the unshakeable truth that God is still sitting on His throne.
The LORD sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the LORD sits as King forever.
Psalm 29:10
Rest. Go in peace and the peace of God attend you.