“Jesus, take the wheel”
“Who by worrying adds a single hour to his life?”
The Corona virus has swept rapidly through international news and across the world. I have to wonder if news of the virus has spread faster than the illness has.
I can say with confidence that I’ve learned about our world through mainstream media. As a millennial, my childhood was spent witnessing tragic events come and go on the American stage. Every day I would come home from school, I would turn on the television and see the hottest breaking news flash across the screen. Then I would wonder what hope there was for the world I would inherit.
In my lifetime alone, I have been witness to Columbine, the Disappearance of Natalee Holloway, 9/11, the American-Iraqi war, the Swine Flu, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, the Sandy Hook Massacre, the Aurora Movie Theater Shooting, the assassination of Osama bin-Ladin, the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Treyvon Martin Shooting, the Puerto Rico hurricane and earthquake with various other incidents…and now COVID-19, officially classified today as a pandemic. Those alive today understand that we are in an unprecedented moment. We have not witnessed another time like ours.
During all of those years, taking in the world in front of my TV screen, I wanted to see something new. These days, when news of the Corona pandemic is at its height, I’ve learned to meditate on this:
“There is nothing new under the sun”
This COVID-19 pandemic is not the first illness to make an appearance on the earth, and it may not be the last. Only God can determine that, which is why I can have hope.
I like being a Christian, because I personally find it easier – I can cast all of my cares on an all-powerful God. He knows the beginning and the end. Nothing gets past Him. The buck stops with Him. Nothing surprises Him. He is the one who surprises. Nothing manipulates His choices. He is the single Mastermind of the world’s events through all time.
Jesus prophesied, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”
Jesus isn’t. Not in the least. He knew the things I witnessed in my childhood were coming. He’s also not surprised that COVID-19 is here. However, there’s one thing that I struggle with, that Jesus did have: TRUST. We learn from Jesus’ example that God is sovereign over all things, presiding through the shadow of death. Jesus remembered the character and identity of the Father, seeking God until the very end of His life, even to His resurrection and ascension. Nothing changed Jesus’ attitude toward prayer.
During this difficult moment, can we feel comfortable with fear taking the wheel, or does Jesus remain in the driver’s seat of our heart, mind and choices?
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