History in the Making

We are living in a historic moment — do we realize this? Coronavirus is literally history in the making. Are we going to watch Netflix while the world is changing? Or will be found leaning into the opportune moment, pressing into the Lord to ask him what he thinks about all this?

I see so many potential good things coming out of this unique season. People have free time now more than ever before, for one. The fast-paced, schedule-booked, average American is forcibly been slowed down and isolated. The absolute best way to spend this extra time is to linger with the Lord and abide in Christ. No longer do people have the excuse that they “don’t have time” to pray or study the Word. If the people of God use this margin of time to abide in Christ, fruit will be produced — That’s the promise of John 15. And the fruit that will be produced could be the catalyst of personal and massive revival.  

People have also been separated from the privilege of attending church. I highly value the regular meeting of the people of God (which coronavirus can’t stop anyway), but the forced pause in routine church meetings could have positive outcomes. For the people who have been relying on their pastor or church as an institution for all their spiritual nourishment, now is the time to learn to meet God for themselves and discover the joy of a personal, sustaining, thriving relationship with the Lord. For the people who have taken church for granted, now is the time to recommit to active participation in the faithful gathering of Christ’s body. And I am secretly hoping that the small pockets of house churches that are rising up in the middle of this will gain so much momentum that church will never go back entirely to the same thing it was.

The coronavirus also sets a perfect stage for the movement of the Word of God across the nations. The gospel of the kingdom always has a way of spreading in oppositional circumstances. When it doesn’t make sense for the Word of God to spread, it does anyway. Take persecution and martyrdom for example. In the same way, the Word of the Lord will continue to spread against all odds brought on by coronavirus. When the world is quarantined, the gospel is not. Though the world is at a standstill, the gospel is on the move. And may the Word of the Lord spread even more quickly and undetectably and contagiously as the virus itself, only bringing light and healing in its wake in a season of great distress and suffering. 

Coronavirus has made people, whether they recognize it or not, ask questions about where their hope lies and where their foundation is built. It reminds me of Jesus’ story in Matthew chapter seven, the one about the two different builders. One built his house on a rock, and the other on sand. We are now in the part of the story where the rain comes down, the streams rise, and the wind is blowing and beating against this house. If our foundation is built on the economy, or the government, or a health care system, or retirement savings, or social status...then it is already crashing down around us. May the world see that the Christian’s hope remains unshaken in all this, for only one Rock is immovable and unshakeable against these winds, and those who build their house about Him will stand. Coronavirus is a wide open door to talking about hope and foundations and the good news of the gospel of Christ. Let’s not miss a single opportunity. 

I heard it said that this quarantine is like being in a cocoon. The world will not be the same when we come out because we will not be the same. We are looking forward to a new world and praying for a new world, and it begins with the transformation that needs to happen in us.