christineyountjones.com

Category: Insights

  • Nature Is Not Our Friend … Where Disease Comes From

    Nature Is Not Our Friend … Where Disease Comes From

    Why does God allow the coronavirus to exist, to spread, to kill? Fundamentally, there is a truth that lies at the root of the answer to that question: Nature is not our friend.

    NATURE…

    we 

    seek 

    solace

    in

    what

    stalks

    us

    now.

    There are natural consequences for a natural world that is NOT our friend.

    I wrote this once about my husband Mike’s death…

    Nature is a monster lying in wait. We marveled at nature’s beauty that day and tiptoed on its surface until it proved that it is wild and waiting to snatch the life from anyone who comes near. Its gaping jaw opened and swallowed my husband that day. 

    Nature is not our friend. Regardless of its beauty and wonder and the revelation of who God is in its very fiber, nature is writhing under the curse of humanity’s sin. 

    We stand in awe of something that is decaying. Jagged cliffs were once beautiful mountains that have suffered under the constant deluge of rainwater. Erosion is the shadow of the world that was to be. 

    And we do not understand that just as we are fallen and in need of grace, nature is fallen. It is brutal. It stalks the unwary.

    Animals attack. Boats capsize. Thorns pierce. Gravity hungrily drags people to their death. 

    We who are living in a broken world are called to be caretakers of a once-perfect environment that now cannot be approached with the naivety and ignorance we exhibited that fateful day.

    Nature is not our friend. The coronavirus is nature run amok.

    It is the unnatural crossing forbidden barriers. It is a dish eaten with consequences for all humanity. It is an enemy that oozed through a permeable wall. 

    And now it stalks the weak, the infirm, the aged. 

    Just as the weak, the infirm, the aged deer cannot keep up with the herd when an enemy attacks…the virus pounces on the edges of our society. 

    It is nature run amok. 

    Nature was forever cursed in the Garden of Eden.

    In Genesis, I read yesterday about when Cain killed Abel that the earth cried out. The perfect world that once was harmless and holy…cried out to its creator: “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.”

    It is in Genesis that the enmity between humanity and nature progressed from transgression to transgression.

    Adam’s curse was “cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you…

    Until you return to the ground;

    Because from it you were taken; 

    For you are dust,

    And to dust you shall return.”

    We were once ONE with nature. But now we are cursed enemies. 

    It’s amazing to me that Eve is blamed for the curse. And well she should be. But Adam’s sin cost us the oneness with the earth. Cost us safety in the garden. Made the earth produce thorns, thistles, bacterias, viruses, poisons, enmity.

    And when Cain killed his brother, the curse deepened. 

    God asked, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you.”

    Creator, Reveal Your Secrets

    The only way out of this morass of death and disease and destruction is if God opens the secrets of nature to the minds of scientists. For a cure. For a vaccine. For a treatment.

    We broke nature with our sin.

    Nature is the thing that will fix us.

    God is the only one who can unlock the secrets.

    Open wide your doors of mercy, God. Open our scientists’ eyes so they can see.

  • Our God, We Are in Your Hands

    Our God, We Are in Your Hands

    Today is a day of prayer and fasting. A worldwide call to cry out to God for healing and protection: Our God, we are in your hands.

    Lord God, have mercy on us. Pour out Your care and protection and wisdom on our world. May we turn to You as never before as we realize how dependent we are on You.

    Lord God, would You open the eyes and minds of the scientists in the same way that You did for George Washington Carver? Would You reveal secrets that are hidden in Your creation? Would You speak to their minds and enlighten and enliven them? Would You strengthen them with stamina and courage and insight? Would You help them find treatments and cures as You have done for ages with other plagues?

    Our God, we are in Your hands.

    Lord God, would You speak to the world’s leaders? Would You give them wisdom and courage and foresight that they’ve never had before? Would You show them the way to go? Would You give them the character they need to lead in this time? Would You help them make the decisions they need to make?

    Our God, we are in Your hands.

    Lord God, would You be our provider, our sustainer, our all during this time? We face scarcity and it freaks us out. Would You help us turn to You instead of our online shopping or local grocery store for peace? Would You help us trust You for our daily bread?

    Our God, we are in Your hands.

    Lord God, would You heal what ails us in our broken world’s economy now that this virus has crippled it? At the same time, would You reveal to us that what we trusted in was never worthy of our trust?

    Our God, we are in Your hands.

    Lord God, would You help us see what matters most in these times? Would You fill our hearts with love for one another…for the least of these…for people we do not even know?

    Lord God, would You protect and comfort the lonely…the isolated…the fearful…the bored…those who are on the brink of a mental break? Would You sustain and uphold them?

    Lord God, would You connect us as never before in a time that we are distant? Would You awaken the church with faith and courage and wisdom? Would You help the church rise up and be a light at this time? Would You cultivate our longing for community? For worship? For what we took for granted only months before? 

    Would You watch over our children who are on the front lines? Would You protect them, heal them, guide them? Would You strengthen their immune systems? Would You, dear God, help them and our grandchildren to escape this pestilence unharmed? Lord God, would You bless them with long life and health and a relationship with You?

    Would You draw them to You? Would You help them see that they need You? Would You draw near to them in ways that they sense Your goodness and love and presence?

    Thank You, God, that You have built a hedge of protection around our youngest generation. You have given them amazing immune systems. In Your mercy, You are making the plague pass over the youngest of us. Thank You, God. Please continue to protect the children. Lord God, would You bless them with long life and good health?

    Our God, we are in Your hands.

    Lord God, our world is broken. Would You heal our world? Heal our hearts? Heal our hospital systems? 

    Would You help us rise up as a people across the world stronger, wiser, more resilient?

    Would You comfort those who are grieving the loss of precious loved ones? Would You be the God who draws near when we mourn? Would You be present with them when they awaken to the new reality of their loss?

    Would You strengthen the ones who must deal with all the death? Would You protect their health and help them see the light in all this darkness?

    Lord God, would You make a way in the wilderness? 

    Our God, we are in Your hands. 

    You alone can save.

    You alone can rescue.

    You alone, God. We cry out to You in desperation.

    Come, Holy Spirit! Bring healing in Your wings.

  • We Will Never Be the Same After Covid-19

    We Will Never Be the Same After Covid-19

    When this is all over, we will never be the same….

    When the world returns to its fast pace…

    When we all come out from our homes, blinking at the bright sunshine that never dimmed…

    When our healthcare providers can take a breath without fearing infection…. 

    When they can sleep, rest, cry… 

    When they find peace after all they have seen and experienced…

    When families bury their loved ones…

    Grieve their losses…

    Stagger away from graves as our war heroes who were most scarred by this virus…

    When those who have battled for their lives are restored… 

    We will never be the same.

    We will never take for granted the freedoms we had to do the simplest of things. To run to the store for bananas. To hug our grown kids. To sit on the floor and play with our grandkids. 

    We will never take for granted the privilege of gathering with our brothers and sisters in Christ to break bread, to worship, to come to the Table.

    We will never take for granted a handshake. A hug. A kiss on the cheek in greeting.

    We will never take for granted what we once thought we would never lose.

    We will be awakened.

    We will be awakened because while we once thought we were in control, we never really were. We will see how fragile life is and that the Author of Life is the only One in control. We will seek God more.

    We will be awakened to how connected we are to one another. Not just to our families and friends, but we are connected to people all the way on the other side of the world. Their destiny and our destiny are delicately intertwined. We will be more responsible.

    We will be awakened to who we really are. We will see that we can be noble and heroic even with something as simple as just.stay.home. We will realize that what we really value isn’t the stuff of life but it’s the people in our lives…and the people we do not even know. We will see that like generations before us that we have what it takes to do what’s necessary for the common good. We will be more noble.

    We will be awakened to the needs of others. We have been asked to slow down for the sake of those who are at risk. And we have done it. We have closed businesses, cancelled money-making events, delayed dream trips. We have stopped doing what might hurt our neighbors. We will awaken to finally see the needs of all the at-risk among us. We will see the poor and disadvantaged in a new way and we will act and vote differently. We will be more conscientious.

    We will be awakened to our limits. We will see that even though our world leaders seek to do what’s necessary and best for the common good, they are limited. They do not fully know what to do–and yet they lead bravely. For us individually, there is also so much we do not understand. But humbly, we comply. We will be more humble. 

    We will be awakened to our personal and institutional gaps. For us personally, we will realize how much we need community. We will reach out and connect in ways we never have. We will build the social network we wish we had had in place before. For the church, we will also realize where the gaps are in our way of doing church. We will see whether we have built a network of community that can sustain not meeting on Sundays. We will ask and seek answers to the question: What does it mean to be the church? In our isolation, we will emerge with a new commitment to connection. We will be more connected.

    When this ends, we will never be the same.