People are under stress. Two million Canadians are unemployed. Families are suffering because their elderly parents are locked up in nursing homes. They lament that their elderly mother may be sequestered safe from the virus but she will die of loneliness. We have been locked up for too many months. These are difficult times.
Our faith will not give us the magic medication that will make the frustration and loneliness go away. God is not the controller of the puppet show that can make good things happen to us.
We are being challenged to turn toward our faith history and seek God in this bleak season of loneliness. We are seeking purpose in all of this.
We did not learn about the faithfulness and the power of God when times were good and prosperous. Our religion arises out of suffering and deep pain. Our Hebrew ancestors were slaves in Egypt. They suffered under the production quotas of Pharaoh (the powers in control of the society and the wealth of the society). There was much pain in all of this. Also, add to this suffering the efforts of the Pharaoh to control the Hebrew population. Male babies were to be killed!
God comes to Moses and sends him: Set my people free!
We have the confrontation of Moses and the Pharaoh. The slaves are freed and they escape, dryshod, through the parted waters of the Red Sea. But their years in the desert were years of trouble, rebellion and complaining,
This is where our memories can give us guidance through these tough times. As we once again tell the story (i.e., the memory) of Moses and the freed slaves we must place ourselves among them. They cried out to God for help and assistance. They sought courage through the dark days where hope seem so absent. Now we are in the desert. We are crying out to God for help and assistance to get us through these dark times.
Our God is not distant to our sufferings and pain. He literally was one of us when we recall the suffering and aguish that happened in the garden the night before he died and the feeling of abandonment that he experienced on the cross. Not only is the Son of God fully immersed in the struggles of human life, but he cries out for help in these terrible times of suffering.
We want to encourage our people to bring to God in prayer their loneliness, their confusion and their frustrations. Be unafraid to bring before God your hesitation and feelings of being down through the months of unemployment. Ask for divine help when the business that you have been trying to build up in the last few years has had to close its doors.
Countless believers have shared their experiences of the tough times in life. “I would never have got through this if it was not for my faith.” In this season of isolation and lockdown (which will probably last a full year) ask God for the strength and courage you need. Ask for personal and family resilience to get you through these confusing and tough times.
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