Just heard about some interesting comments from someone who works in a couple of different hospitals in two different states.

He said everyday he goes to work, he hears the same debates in the doctor’s lounge. Some say COVID-19 is deadly and we’re not taking it seriously enough. Others say it’s just a really bad flu and what we’re doing is an overreaction. (I should point out, neither side says we should ignore it.) But here’s the thing: these two viewpoints are divided even among doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. So what does this mean? Whichever side you fall on personally, how ever you feel about the virus or the way governments are handling it, here’s the truth about what the future holds:

We don’t know.

And here’s the thing about not knowing. Neurologists tell us human beings are wired to feel uncomfortable with uncertainty. We have a strong natural desire to know what’s happening around us — one way or the other. We don’t like the ambiguous space in between. In fact we hate it.

Unfortunately for us humans, life often presents situations where we don’t know what the truth is one way or the other. Life can be enigmatic, puzzling, and perplexing. God often puts us in a position where we have to wait (on Him) to learn the truth. We often find ourselves in a position where we don’t know where our next job will come from, or who our spouse will be, or if we’ll even ever have a spouse at all, or what our kids will be like, or if we’ll be able to have kids at all, or what the cause of the troubling physical symptoms we’re experiencing right now are, or where we’re going to live.

C.S. Lewis said this about uncertainty:

“Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ‘as to the Lord’. … The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.”

C. S. Lewis

We live in a time of uncertainty. We don’t know how long this will last. We don’t know when we’ll have a vaccine or if we’ll ever have a vaccine. We don’t know what the future of the economy will be like. If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to acknowledge that if the experts in the doctors lounge can’t even agree on how serious COVID is, we can’t know how serious COVID is. We may know in another year or two or twent-two. But we can’t know right now. Our human understanding falls short. We don’t know what the future holds.

It’s a weird, unsettling, unsure, unknowable time. But it’s also an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to exercise our faith by trusting God day by day.

I’ve said it before, holding tightly to future plans and expectations is a recipe for anxiety and depression. Holding lightly and being open to what God has in mind for our future — however strange that future might be — results in peace.

But even more important than experiencing peace, trusting in God for our future and being open to His plans for us (even when His plan is surprising) pleases God. The writer of Hebrews tells us:

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

So if you believe God’s words, and you know that He is pleased by those who have faith in Him, and He rewards those who seek Him, have faith in Him and seek Him.

Take advantage of this opportunity we’re living in right now. Wake up every morning and seek Him. Ask Him what He wants you to do that day. If we don’t know what the future holds, we can please God by focusing on what God puts in front of us, day by day.

He rewards those who seek Him.

He is pleased by those who have faith in Him.

“Father, You have given us a unique opportunity to please You right now. Sometimes it feels so hard. But we ask You to change the way we look at this pandemic. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit and help us to take advantage of this opportunity to exercise our faith in You. Fill us with Your Spirit and inspire us to seek You every morning, and to focus on one day at a time, and to have faith in You for our future.

“In Jesus’ name.”

Notes:

Image of doctor talking via freestockphotos — public domain

Newly released book by Kurt Bennett, now available on Amazon!

Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others.

Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus.

(Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon.)