A Timely Timeless Quote
I ran across these words in my devotion last Thursday. The COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest in society have brought about a great unease in many and I pray these words can provide both perspective and hope.
“Can this really be what life is about as the media insist? This interminable soap opera going on from century to century, from era to era, whose old discarded sets and props litter the earth? Surely not…
Whatever may happen, however seemingly inimical to it may be the world’s going and those who preside over the world’s affairs, the truth of the Incarnation remains intact and inviolate…The world’s way of responding to intimations of decay is to engage equally in idiot hopes and idiot despair. On the one hand, some new policy or discovery is confidently expected to put everything to rights: a new fuel, a new drug, détente, world government. On the other, some disaster is as confidently expected to provide our undoing. Capitalism will break down. Fuel will run out. Plutonium will lay us low. Atomic waste will kill us off.
In Christian terms, such hopes and fears are equally beside the point. As Christians, we know that here we have no continuing city, that crowns roll into the dust and every earthly kingdom must sometime flounder, whereas we acknowledge a king men did not crown and cannot dethrone, as we are citizens of a city of God they did not build and cannot destroy. Thus, the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, living in a society as depraved and dissolute as ours. Their games, like our television, specialized in spectacles of violence and eroticism. Paul exhorted them to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in God’s work, to concern themselves with the things that are unseen, for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal…Now in the breakdown of Christendom, there are the same requirements and the same possibilities to eschew the fantasy of a disintegrating world and seek the reality of what is not seen and eternal, the reality of Christ.”
These words were published forty-one years ago in Malcom Muggeridge’s “The End of Christendom.” Perhaps the word “détente” and the phrase “atomic waste”, among others, gave its age away, but they still seem to fit our age.
So, too, does the victory of Christ Jesus, God incarnate. His suffering, death, and resurrection for our forgiveness and life is ever timely and timeless! Confide and reside in Him.
“33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Taking a CAB to get to your work.
As I did last week, I’d like to share with you a thought from the online ZOOM conference I “attended” a couple of weeks ago.
Another one of the “images” Tim Elmore suggested to us was that we take a CAB when we are ready to head to work. This was more of an acronym than an image – and Elmore is fond of these, too!
C stands for Context. As you head out to your vocation in the days ahead remind yourself of the context of our pandemic situation. By Elmore’s count, this is the fourth pandemic in the last century. He shared further that he had run across a photograph from 1918. It was of a Georgia Tech football game – and the people in the stand were wearing masks! Our country has been through this, before.
A stands for Application. If the tasks before you seem overwhelming and insurmountable, break them down into manageable steps. Those clear action steps can give you a sense of success and accomplishment as you move your way along.
B, finally, stands for Belief. Whereas the world around us would signal this with phrases like “You can do this” and “We’ll get through this,” our contribution as the body of Christ comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians: 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (4:12-13).
God bless you as you head to the things before you with God’s voice (paraphrased!) saying to you “We got this!”
The Flight Attendant Factor
I received an invitation to watch a video conference about leadership during the time of pandemic. It was last Monday during an hour that turned out to be occupied already. Thankfully they made it available for review, so I benefited from all the same material and simply could not take part in the real time online chat.
There were many useful images shared, which is a trait of Tim Elmore, one of the leaders of the conference and a thinker whose work I very much appreciate.
One of the images he suggested was entitled “The Flight Attendant Factor.” Even if you have not been on a plane recently I’m sure you can think of a time as you were on a flight when you experienced turbulence. Elmore’s observation is that the first thing you do when you experience turbulence is grab your armrests. The second thing most people do is look to the flight attendants. If the flight attendant looks scared, then you know you’re in trouble!
If, however, the flight attendant is still smiling and handing out pretzels you calm down. You think to yourself, “Well, if (s)he thinks it’s ok, I guess I’ll be ok.”
That is certainly one of the messages we in the church want to get across. During this time of pandemic we remain safely in the hands of our loving and all-powerful God. He does assure us that in this world we will have trouble – it is, after all, wracked with sin. But our Lord Jesus continues to say to us, “But take heart; I have overcome the world.” This He accomplished through His passion, death, and triumphant resurrection.
I pray that you are finding peace in the assurance of God’s watchful and loving care.