We’ve never been through anything like this before. This pandemic is testing our faith, our stamina, our patience, our confidence, our endurance, and what I’m especially thinking about this morning — our love. There appear to be no guarantees. You never know who and when it will hit, and should it hit close to home, there’s no real way of knowing where it came from. It’s an invisible enemy and we feel helpless against it. We are all feeling our mortality as never before.
That’s why Peter’s advice in 1 Peter 4:7-10 is so relevant to us today when he writes that the end of all things is near, therefore, we should be alert so we can pray, love each other deeply, be hospitable and serve one another with the gifts we have received. The first thing you notice about this list is that these are all pretty normal things we should be doing all the time anyway. There’s no sense of panic here. The end, however it comes, should find us busy serving the Lord as we always do and praying all the time and loving each other.
If this coronavirus scare has a silver lining anywhere, it should be in reminding us to love each other deeply and taking the opportunity to do that. This is when we shouldn’t take anything for granted. Tell those you love how much you love them and give lots of hugs (or virtual hugs if they don’t live in your household) whenever you can. You don’t want to be wishing you’d done that when you could. Do it now.
And look for how you can serve others. This is harder to do when we’re practice social distancing and staying home as much as possible. It just means we have to get creative. Some of our Catch family are making masks at home, others are running errands for elderly in the neighborhood who can’t get out of the house. We can all make phone calls, send texts, do FaceTime and Zoom meetings. If ever we are learning the value of online relationships it is now. We have an online church and an online Bible study going here at the Catch and they are doing great. Church last night reached 879 people with 280 engaging with the event in some way as in liking it or making a comment. And our Wednesday night Bible study on Zoom is growing every week. Make a note to join us this Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. PDT.
Whatever you do, don’t wait to do it — don’t put it off for some other time. That time may not come. Do it now.
John Fischer The Catch 
Garth Brooks sings it, “If tomorrow never comes, will she know how much I loved her?”
A few months ago, I was faced with the reality of no more tomorrow, no more opportunities to say “I love you.” Someone who had been my closest friend, someone my kids called ‘aunt’ because we were so close, passed away suddenly from a stroke. We had fallen out of contact, interests and ministries evolving in different directions. I always thought there would be time later to pick up the threads and get together again….but time ran out.
The truth is, time is running out for all of us. Sobering, sad, but also liberating and joyful if we take that reality and use it to goad ourselves to, as Tim McGraw sang, “always be humble and kind.”
What could the world look like then…if believers aspired to that?
Don’t miss the chances God gives you. Don’t give up if it’s not received – let the Spirit deal with it, Move on to the next opportunity. And the next…
God bless and keep you all. Virtual hugs all around!
Jeremiah 29:11
Absolutely loved reading your comments Sandie!
And God’s speed to you & yours!
This is very cool Pastor John: “Church last night reached 879 people with 280 engaging with the event in some way as in liking it or making a comment.”
Praise the Lord & take that Satan! Corona or not God always has His love & Word goes forth by the Power of His Holy Spirit and it will NOT return to Him Void! Amen!!!!
Steve Hartman from “On the Road” has extended his series on Kindness 101.
Today’s episode is about: COURAGE.
Try something hard this week – like expressing love – for as John said above:
You don’t want to be wishing you’d done [something] when you could. Do it now.
EnJOY…
Be blessed, be a blessing, be of good cheer.
Shalom, Peace….
🙂
Thanks everybody for your encouraging messages. Keep up the faith!
Silver lining?
I couldn’t help but wonder, John, if you were toning things down a bit when you wrote “a” silver lining (in the singular) when there are so many silver linings that it could be mistaken for a thunder and lightning display right now!
We need to open our eyes and see:
The fields are not only ripe for harvest but are desperately thirsty for and drinking in any and all good news! We’ve all seen the uplifting stories – the silver linings – and, therefore, are witnesses to the Lord’s hand of booming goodness and flashing brightness at this time of dark viral despair.
We must ask ourselves this question, though:
Are we contributing to the good news or not? Are we silver linings?
Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers – that’s US, folks! – into His fields, even if those fields are, for the time being, virtual.
~ Luke 10:2
Be blessed, be a blessing, be of good cheer!
Shalom, Peace…
🙂
God’s speed to you & yours brother Bob & Big Amen to your comments!