Lent in a Pandemic

Originally written in May 2020:

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken our world in ways that are new for many, if not all, of us. We’ve experienced fear and change and isolation in unprecedented ways for the West. And we’ve all responded differently in the quiet of our own homes, or through the virtual channels that have most of our attention. Many, both in and outside of the church, have fallen into anxiety and fear. Others have combated fear with carelessness and ease, convinced this disease doesn’t affect their day to day lives. Others, still, fight anger or disappointment as they see their jobs end, potentially permanently, or face shortages at the grocery store or in their own pantries. 

 In Matthew 16, Jesus’ disciples are faced with a similar sense of disillusionment. Peter has just declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and is met with praise from Jesus who says the Father has revealed this truth to him. The disciples, still riding this high of walking alongside the promised King, likely had their own dreams of security and peace finally arriving, and perhaps even riches and grandeur. After all, this promised King had heaven at His disposal. Life was just getting good.

Or was it? Jesus’ next words are met with sharp rebuke from Peter, the one who just verses before declared Him to be the Son of God. Instead of painting a vision for the Kingly rule and how peace would be made here on earth, this King begins to speak of suffering and death at the hands of His enemies. This isn’t right! I think we can begin to relate to Peter as he pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Him. “No, no, Jesus, you said the BLESSED life, a life to the full!” And to this Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

Here in the COVID-19 crisis, I wonder if we attempt to outrun God’s plan. I wonder if our eyes might be set too low. I wonder if participating in the swirl and looking for ways out as quickly as possible, simply aligns our goals with Satan’s and misses the work of Jesus. “No, no, Jesus. This isn’t how Easter is supposed to go. We had plans for a big service and we know you want this work to be done! Here’s how it should go.” Don’t hear me saying that God delights in suffering or we shouldn’t pray to see this pandemic end. We can and we should! Our prayerlessness is just as much a lack of love for others as it is a symptom of our unbelief. But, in the waiting, I believe God is up to something. 

Matthew 16 goes on to say that those who follow Jesus are those who “deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him.” Jesus teaches us the upside down truth that true life is found by losing, not gaining all that we hoped for. I think none of this surprises the majority world who live in poverty, isolation, fear, and lack. They have counted the cost and followed Jesus and found that He indeed, is worth it. Yet here in the West, when faced with the opportunity for true self-denial, we balk. This can’t be what Jesus is talking about! We want our season of lent to involve giving up sugar, or social media, or alcohol. We’ll take those small inconveniences and many of us find that even those are too hard to give up for an entire season, especially one that is putting pressure on our lives. 

Lent is a season of stripping down so we can really see. A season of remembering the denial of Jesus and the way of the cross as we walk toward Easter, and COVID-19 has been a forced lent for us. And a lent that we wouldn’t have chosen on our own. COVID-19 has forced us to give up our rights, our routines, some of our sense of comfort, our busyness, and even our community (at least as we’ve usually done it). This pandemic has challenged our love of nice buildings and fancy services. It’s asked us, even if none go with us, will we still follow? 

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done.” In this season of stripping away of physical security, may we begin again to care about souls. Both ours and the souls of our neighbors. If we reach the end of this lent, or this pandemic, and have simply survived or even thrived, physically, but have not looked to Jesus, then we’ve missed this opportunity to care for what really matters. If we rush back into our ways of doing things and forget the global church who likely lives these realities day in and day out, we’ve forfeited this opportunity to share in their sufferings and to remember our Jesus is not found in the prosperity Gospel. 

I have decided to follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

No turning back, no turning back

In a pandemic, still I will follow

In isolation, still I will follow

In fear of dying, still I will follow

No turning back, no turning back

The world behind me, the cross before me

The world behind me, the cross before me

The world behind me, the cross before me

No turning back, no turning back 

Just like Dad

I heard a speaker say recently that at the end of life, the goal is to have God look at Jesus and then look at us and say, "they look the same." This made me think, what does it mean to look like our heavenly Father? How do we even do that?

I'll admit, I'm a daddy's girl. I've always respected my dad, looked up to him, and wanted to be like him. And the strangest thing is, the older I get, the more I realize how much we are alike. I certainly didn't try to pick up his mannerisms or passions or quirks. Dad didn't teach me to pick at the corners of pies rather than eat an entire piece (although he did show me how to do it better!), he didn't tell me how to be a somewhat strange extrovert, he didn't make me like NPR or oatmeal, he didn't tell me I needed to sing random songs or make up goofy dances in public; but yet, somehow all those traits have been passed along to me.
As I get older I pray that God would let me know and love His word like my dad, I've strived to have the conviction and urgency with which he lives his life and I've admired his sold-out, genuine, love for the Lord and people. I think in a small way, those things are being made aparant in my life. Just like dad.

I realized that I don't have to try to be like my dad. He's a piece of who I am and for better or worse at times, I'm destined to carry a part of him in my life that will look like He does. I don't have to make a plan or set goals of "How to be like my Father", in fact, ask any of my family and they would tell you we are more and more alike every year. Yes, I do work to mimic those aspects of my dad's life that I want to see in my own. I think of him waking up at 4:30am and think 6am isn't bad and it's worth it for those sweet morning hours. I think of him visiting people in need and sharing good news without apology and I think I could do more of that in my life. Even as I strive in some areas, it comes from a heart that knows my dad, has seen his character, and wants to be like him.

I think it's that way with our heavenly Father as well. Living this life is just looking at Dad and knowing that each year, because He is a part of our lives now, we will be more like Him. It's also knowing His character and asking that ours would be more like that because we have experienced the love and goodness from it. It's setting goals not because we have to but because we want to because we've seen His life and want to live the same.

I love you dad, always will. Thanks for being the example of what my life under my heavenly Father should be.

May you all know the freedom and security of being a child following in their Father's footsteps.

The Beginning at the End

Today is a day I need to be reminded. My heart feels torn 1,000 directions at least and my mind can't seem to quiet itself from the bustle of mental list making and note taking and heart searching. Today I need to be reminded that at the end of the day these things will not matter:

Chris' job
Health
My job
House
Number of friends
Money
How well I kept a schedule
Fitness
My ability to do anything

"But these things remian, faith hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:33
"There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out all fear." 1 John 4:18
"Heaven and earth will pass away but My Word will not pass away." Matthew 24:35

I find freedom in these moments as I set my mind on things above and not things here on earth (Colossians 3:2). May you set your eyes on Him and truely be free today.

Gospel Invasion

I got this update from Desiring God's daily e-mails. It's a powerful look at how the Gospel compels us to live and to view our lives. May we find freedom and we surrender our lives to God's kingdom plan as we relinquish our own.


In his new book, Gospel Wakefulness, Jared Wilson writes,

One of the attendant aims of missional evangelicalism is to challenge the compartmentalizing of the Christian faith that we see within the Western church. We are fantastic at itemizing our schedules, and even if we don't assign God a very large bracket, we are constantly remorseful that we "haven't made much time for him." While such compartmentalizing — as if "time with God" can or should be hermetically sealed off from everything else — is a natural symptom of our culture and environment, it also reflects a bad theology.

The truth is, the day does not belong to us. It is not our day to do with as we please. We serve a sovereign God. He created the end from the beginning, knows our future exhaustively, and is firmly in control. He made our days and they belong to him. As such, isn't it a bit arrogant to begin with the idea that each day is ours and then worry about fitting God in? Instead, we should work at the humble awe of knowing all of our moments, every millisecond, waking or sleeping, are perfectly accounted for within the economy of heaven.

Let us stake the flag of Christ's kingdom into the soil of our first waking moment. Drink your coffee when you get up, of course, but drink it to the glory of God. Then carry on in this way all day, no matter the task, be it menial or notable, so that each day may be a living prayer that God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what it means to live a gospel-saturated life: it means being so conscious of the greatness of the gospel that changing diapers or cutting the grass is as much an act of worship as singing a praise chorus in a church service….

Jesus Christ is Lord over my heart, and he is Lord over my hands, and he is Lord over what I do with these hands, and he is Lord over what I say in my heart while I'm doing it. In submitting to the lordship of Christ, then, I do not treat washing dishes as wasting time I could be spending doing something "meaningful," but rather as a service to those who eat in my home, as a service to those who would have to wash the dishes if I did not, and as an offering of thanksgiving to God that I have food to eat, dishes to eat it on, and running water inside my home to clean with.

To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, there is not a square inch of our lives that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by ourselves. If we believe God is sovereign, however, we will see all of life as mission and be led to submit the square inches we otherwise hold so tightly to the Maker of inches and hands.

Gospel Wakefulness, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 90–92, paragraphing added.

Thankful

Today I am thankful.

Thankful that sometimes God says no.
Thankful for a husband who's faith outlasts my own.
Thankful that that same husband buys me a pumpkin latte not because it solves anything but because it makes me smile.
Thankful for a home where we can entertain and see God work.
Thankful for struggles that lead us to truth.
Thankful that home is simply where we are as long as God is there.
Thankful that one day home will be permanent.
Thankful for a dad who prays and a mom who encourages me.
Thankful that God speaks through others.
Thankful for a random note of encouragement from my uncle.

Today I know that prayers aren't always answered in the way I imagined but I also know that we are not abandoned and that because the Son of God died there is a future and a hope. Today I'm finding thankfulness behind closed doors.

A thankful heart is a free heart. May you be thankful today!

A look at suffering

Let's admit. We all have struggles. We all have suffering in our lives. Maybe it's bad health or a bad relationship or job rejection or just unexplained sadness that keeps us up at night.

I've had my fair share of what I would call suffering. I've had health issues, relationship struggles, family trials and sadness that came with moving and getting married and watching life change suddenly. There have been moments when I could swear to you that no one cared and no one really loved me, yes, even Jesus.

I remember dark nights of the soul, nights not that long ago. I was promised that things would get better, that I would "make it". And then one night I realized that things weren't better, at least not in my time, and I wasn't sure that while in fact I would, "make it", I really wanted to. What's the purpose of a life where suffering is inevitable and where it seems like no one could understand?

Mark 14:36 is a powerful portrayal. In it we see Jesus knelt before the Father saying, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will but what you will." And here suffering is met with the greatest love we can know. In suffering I don't need to hear that I'll make it or that things will get better. I need to hear the words of my Savior as He willingly suffered for me. "Not what I will, but what You, Father, will". And because of those words, the Creator of the universe laid down His life for me.

Freedom is not found in looking at our circumstances and trying to overcome. Freedom is found in looking to Someone greater and trusting He who has already overcome. May you rest in that freedom today.
"In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Romans 8:37

Hosanna

I spent a quiet Saturday morning in the book of Mark and came across this passage,"And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'" (Mark 11:9-10) Hosanna, such a shout of joy to go before the Lord! And for the life of me I couldn't remember what it meant.
 I did a familiar Google search and came across this passage by John Piper sharing from a Palm Sunday message. He says it more beautifully than I could ever paraphrase so I wanted to share with you all. May your heart join in saying "Hosanna" today. Hosanna is a freedom song, and if we're honest, we all want to be free to sing.



From John Piper: Our mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples, through Jesus Christ. Feel free to copy and share this message by following our lead in not selling it but by providing it freely to others. We ask that you share it in its entirety as is. For more information about our ministry visit our web pages at Desiring God Ministries or email us at DGM.
PIPER'S NOTES

March 27, 1983
(Palm Sunday Evening)
Bethlehem Baptist Church
John Piper, Pastor

I know one of the concerns of the children's music ministry is that the children understand what they are singing and that they mean it. And I share that concern for our people. In a moment the choir will sing a song called, "Hosanna, Hosanna!" And after that we all will sing a song which begins: "Hosanna in the highest!" So I want to give a little lesson in Greek and Hebrew to make sure we all know what the New Testament means when it says in three different places, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" (Mt. 21:9,15), or "Hosanna in the highest!" (Mk. 11:9,10), or simply, "Hosanna!" (John 12:13).
You all know that the New Testament was first written in Greek and the Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. Wherever the word "hosanna" occurs in the New Testament do you know what the Greek word is? Right! It's "hosanna." All the English translators did was use English letters (h-o-s-a-n-n-a) to make the sound of a Greek word.
But if you look in a Greek dictionary to find what it means, you know what you find? You find that it is really not originally a Greek word after all. The men who wrote the New Testament in Greek did the same thing to a Hebrew word that our English translators did to the Greek word: they just used Greek letters to make the sound of a Hebrew phrase. I know this sounds sort of complicated. But it's really not. Our English word "hosanna" comes from a Greek word "hosanna" which comes from a Hebrew phrase hoshiya na.
And that Hebrew phrase is found one solitary place in the whole Old Testament, Psalm 118:25, where it means, "Save, please!" It is a cry to God for help. Like when somebody pushes out off the diving board before you can swim and you come up hollering: "Help, save me" … "Hoshiya na!"
But something happened to that phrase, hoshiya na. The meaning changed over the years. In the psalm it was immediately followed by the exclamation: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" The cry for help, hoshiya na, was answered almost before it came out of the psalmist's mouth. And over the centuries the phrase hoshiya na stopped being a cry for help in the ordinary language of the Jews. Instead it became a shout of hope and exultation. It used to mean, "Save, please!" But gradually it came to mean, "Salvation! Salvation! Salvation has come!" It used to be what you would say when you fell off the diving board. But it came to be what you would say when you see the lifeguard coming to save you! It is the bubbling over of a heart that sees hope and joy and salvation on the way and can't keep it in.
So "Hosanna!" means, "Hooray for salvation! It's coming! It's here! Salvation! Salvation!"
And "Hosanna to the Son of David!" means, "The Son of David is our salvation! Hooray for the king! Salvation belongs to the king!"
And "Hosanna in the highest!" means, "Let all the angels in heaven join the song of praise. Salvation! Salvation! Let the highest heaven sing the song!"
Picture a super bowl game, and (believe it or not) the Vikings are three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers are on their own 35 and have no more time outs. There are two seconds remaining on the clock. The Vikings' fans are going wild. The Steelers line up, fake a pass to the receivers on the left field line and run a wide sweep around the right end and the quarterback breaks into the open and heads down the right sideline -- 40 - 45 - 50 - 45. The only hope for the Vikings is Willie Teal, the safety, cutting a diagonal across the field. And out of the Vikings' grandstand come two kinds of Hosannas, the old kind and the new kind. One part of the crowd is yelling: "Catch him! Catch him, Willie!" (That's the old Hosanna.) The other part of the crowd is yelling, "You got him! You got him, Willie!" (That's the new Hosanna.) The word moved from plea to praise; from cry to confidence.
So when we sing "Hosanna" now, let's make it very personal. Let's make it our praise and our confidence. The Son of David has come. He has saved us from guilt and fear and hopelessness. Salvation! Salvation belongs to our God and to the Son! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

© COPYRIGHT 1983, 1998 John Piper.Piper Notes