For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jeremiah 29:11
We have been accustomed to receiving immediate answers to all our questions. If we do not know the answer, we google it. If an email is not answered immediately, we become irritated. Anger arises if we are sent to a call center, and our issue is not settled to our satisfaction. The instances when we order something on-line and focus on the timing of delivery and then immediately tear open the package upon arrival.
Oh, everyday life in America. Or so we thought.
Now amid the current pandemic, we desperately want all the answers. We search Google, read every article, watch the breaking news continually, and are often left with more questions than answers. Without a quick resolution, we begin to doubt and fear. This fear leads to anxiety, which results in the form of panic. We are unsettled and untethered in a short amount of time; without answers.
The answer to all our questions is immediately available - faith. All God ever asks from us is our faithfulness. Our faith is the gift we can ravenously unpack in our homes and solitude. One thing is sure; the eternal and all-knowing God exists and lives in our midst. God holds each one of us in the palms of those beautiful, divine hands. God who sent Jesus Christ so we may know love and hope in times like these. God is the certainty in times of uncertainty.
Take a chance and surrender. To admit we do not have the answers, and we cannot make the virus stop immediately. Allow God to comfort, strengthen, and guide (even if we dislike waiting). This is also a hallowed time to shift our internal and external priorities. Many worry about the church, on-line worship, and the loss of community. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We will once again come together as a community, and at that time, we will be stronger. In the span of time, 2, 4, or 8 weeks are temporal, similar to the morning fog that will be dissipated by the light.
When we lean upon God, the simplest things, what was once taken for granted, can now be cherished upon their eventual return. God has plans, not for harm, but a future with hope. We may not all the answers, and it is o.k. Place everything in the hands of the Holy One.
God is here.
On this beautiful Wednesday. Allow me to share words often attributed to St. Oscar Romero, but, in fact, given by Fr. Ken Untener.
"It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own."
