I’m not ashamed to admit that Diane and I are scared by Covid-19. Maybe “scared” is the wrong word. “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman, a significant book published in 1995, gives a list of words that describe the overall feeling of fear. “Anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, concern, consternation, misgiving, wariness, qualm, edginess, dread, fright, terror” (289). Diane and I aren’t in “dread, fright, terror,” but the other words do describe how we feel about the virus. Diane washes our masks almost every day. We wear them when we must go out, and are nervous when going out brings us into contact with someone not wearing a mask. We’d love to go back to church but not yet, too nervous. So church is online.
The Bible readings yesterday speak to our feelings. “For those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). You know, you are called. The Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith” (Martin Luther, Small Catechism). Dale, I tapped you to be my own. Put in your name, “I tapped you to be my own, and now my Spirit is striving to keep you with Jesus Christ.” Since you could lose your saving faith, God’s promises are critical in our spiritual struggles. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).
A great thing about the God-given Scriptures is they anticipate our objections. “I believe in Jesus but…” You wonder, God, “all things”? An end of fear? Unworried health? Some money in my unemployment? Note the future tense, “will he (God) not also with him (Christ) graciously give us all things?” Present tense; future perfect. So for now, we hang on to His assurance of love. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Romans 8:35).
“Be patient and await His leisure / In cheerful hope with heart content
To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure / And His discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known / To Him who chose us for His own.”
(Lutheran Service Book, 750, 3)
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