This pandemic has got me so annoyed, and frazzled, and annoyed, and stressed, and, did I say annoyed yet? I’m so tired of it! I want to leave my house! I want to go to a restaurant! I want to go to church and worship with my family! Why can’t they find a cure? A vaccine? Something to make this all go away? My son wants to go back to school! He wants drumline and marching band season back! (Boy do I sound like a spoiled rotten kid!) But I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way.
And yet I hear God telling me, ‘Be patient. I’m not done yet. Do you think I have no control over what’s going on? Do you think this is all a surprise to me? That I’ve been caught off guard? Do you trust me?’
Whoa, there it is again! That same question God has been asking me a lot lately. Seriously, for the past year, He’s been posing that same question to me. Do you trust me? Do you trust me?
Remember how Aladdin is standing on a flying carpet and he reaches out his hand to Princess Jasmine and asks her, ‘Do you trust me?’ I mean, he’s basically doing something that seems impossible, he’s standing on a carpet… that flies! But she makes the choice to trust him, takes his hand, gets on the carpet with him, and ends up going on the ride of her life.
Right now this pandemic seems to be the ride of the world’s life. No one knows where it’s going, what will happen next, and when it will end. But you know what? God does!
Corrie Ten Boom once said, ‘We can trust an unknown future to a known God.’ Whoa, did you read that? Read that again! ‘We can trust an unknown future to a known God.’ And what do we know about God? We know that God is good. We know that God is always working for our good. We know that God is in the business of bringing good things out of bad situations. Romans 8:28 says, And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. (emphasis mine) We also know that God loves us too much to allow us to stay the same and not grow into the people he wants us to be.
Could it be that God knows better than us? That because He is the almighty and the creator of all, that He can see how things will turn out more than our feeble, human minds can? I love it when Job, after losing everything and getting sick with a disease, says to God…
“I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I – and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.” Job 42:2-3
The Message version says…
“I’m convinced. You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’ I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head.” Job 42:2-3
That’s me!! I’m the babbler! I’m sitting here babbling on about how this is just going on and on and not ending. I’m over here pretty much telling God how to fix it, even though I’m not Him. I’m not God.
Kind of like Sarah and Abraham. Instead of trusting God when He said they will have a child, and being patient and waiting for God to finish His work, waiting on His timing (which is perfect, by the way), Sarah takes matters into her own hands. She goes and offers Hagar to Abraham so he can have a child with her. They jumped the gun. Then she gets mad, and jealous and blames Abraham! If they just would have trusted God, they would have saved themselves a lot of hardship and trouble. Ultimately, though, it does happen. Sarah does have that child. God was still faithful. Nothing stopped His plans. And nothing will stop them now.
I don’t want things to go back to ‘normal’. I can’t wait to see what good God will bring out of this horrible pandemic. The evil one once again thought he would triumph. But I know how the story will end. Yes, Father, I trust you! And I will continue to trust you. And when this pandemic is over, my worship, my singing and my day to day life will be a lot less taken for granted. And, hopefully, God will have, and will continue, to work through me for His glory and His good.
Jesus Loving Blonde 