Author: David Neds, Undivided Youth Leader
I’ve been on my phone now more than ever. It’s weird because I shouldn’t be. I gave up social media for lent. If anything, I should be spending more time working on stuff or working out, but I’m not. I’m glued to a screen watching the line graph of the economy have a heart attack. I’m watching videos of our leaders enforcing us to stay away from our loved ones as an unprecedented virus is literally stopping the world from spinning. It’s an interesting dynamic as Christians when we are faced with a reality that challenges our faith of God being in control. That even when it all hits the fan, he somehow has a plan through it. If we look at the news long enough, we will forget all the good works God has done for the world, and for us as individuals. We will forget who set the world in motion and who breathed life into us. So, I am turning my news apps off for a few minutes to remind you, and to remind myself of a couple things. One is that when the world is changing, God is still the same God. When we can’t, he can. When no one else understands how we feel, he does. Finally, when the earth crumbles, he’s the rock that is unshaken. Wherever you are in your six feet of safety bubble, let’s be encouraged that God never changes, even in a pandemic.
YOU STAY THE SAME THROUGH THE AGES
It is amazing how much things change. I remember when the iPhone took over the world and we no longer needed a desktop computer to check our Myspace (what’s that?). Or when we “knew” the world was going to end, only to wake up on December 22,2012 and realized it was a hoax. Or even the last global concern called Swine Flu was going to take over. So many things change, what we wear, what we think about, our worries, etc. Two things that has never changed though, who God is, and his love for us. We used to play this worship song at church when I was in high school called “Your Love Never Fails” by Jesus Culture. And one of the lines goes “you stay the same through the ages, your love never changes, there may pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Thinking about everything going on today, aren’t these lyrics so encouraging? Not only is our God unchanging and unshaken by what cripples us, but even though we are currently in the “night” of this virus, joy is coming in the morning. We can be confident whenever a virus comes, or when we get a new political leader, or even when Calvin Klein goes out of style, that the God we serve, that Jesus Christ will never change. He loves us through it all, and when we are at our worst, when by our own works we can’t make it, we can lean on him to get us through to the other side.
I CAN’T EVEN
I’d like to think I’m good at most things. I just built my fence in my backyard, I could probably perform open heart surgery if the occasion arises…maybe. Like all of us though, I’m not perfect, I can’t do everything. All of us falter in one way or another, everything of this world is imperfect in some sense. It’s crazy to think of the things we put our trust in. We trust electronic banks to handle our money all while knowing there are hackers out there. We trust the cars that are made by imperfect people to safely carry us from home to work or school. We trust our imperfect significant others to not break our hearts. For some reason though, we so often forget that there is a perfect that we can put our full trust in. That perfect is Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t we find so much more rest and reassurance if we would just lay our trust in him instead of the things that break? In a culture where anxiety and depression are king, not to undermine real issues and circumstances, but I wonder how much could trusting God cure our disorders? My favorite verse comes to mind, which is “Do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.” (Phil 4:6). If there is a single verse to combat the worries of today, it’s this verse. I believe in my heart if we’d follow those few steps: don’t be anxious, pray, and give thanks, wow. It would change the culture of fear we are in. When we can’t, God can. When we think we are on our own, he’s gone before us.
NO ONE ELSE HAS BEEN IN MY SHOES LIKE CHRIST HAS
Junior high… man junior high. If you’re a basketball fan, then you’ll know who I am talking when I say the nickname “The Round Rebound”. That’s the glorious title given to Charles Barkley, he was tall, he was round, and he could turn the game around with a good rebound. I was the round rebound too, except I wasn’t tall, yes, I was round, and no, there was no hope for a rebound. Like most of us I experienced a lot of things during junior high. I went through rejection… A LOT. I went through low self-worth, I went through the typical social awkwardness (sorry 6ththrough 8.5 grades for sad shout out). I also went through family issues. I’m telling you all of this not, so you whip out your sad boy violin for me, but to illustrate something. No one conveyed to junior high David that God understood my pain and been in my shoes. To be fair, the bible doesn’t say Jesus was fat or had many family issues, but that does open the door to something, what does the bible say about Jesus’ earthly experiences? Maybe like younger me, you think “God can’t understand what I am going through”, or maybe you think that there will be no fruit of your current suffering. If those thought bubbles are clouding your senses of God right now, I rebuke those thoughts in Jesus’ name. You see, Jesus does get where you’re coming from. He endured horrific rejection to the point where he was killed. For my friends dealing with temptation or addiction, Matthew 4 shows us that Jesus was tempted in 3 ways and overcame it. Those of us who’ve experienced loss of a loved one, Jesus’ cousin John was beheaded. He understands your pain. You may have to endure it for a while but know that God orchestrates everything with purpose.
Maybe you feel like you’re sitting on a bed of thorns one day, or on a bed of roses the next, but through it all you are sitting on PURPOSE. We can have faith that every moment in our lives has been designed by God. What you call a stumbling block today, will be a stepping stone tomorrow. We can confident that God allows things to happen for a higher purpose, I’ll bet my life he’s a man with a plan.
I BET MY LIFE ON JESUS
There are so many reasons for us to keep our heads up, even during a scary time. Scripture shows us how God is so much bigger than the concerns of the world. He knew the virus was coming, he knows the next thing coming, he knows our needs, and he’s got a plan. When you feel like you can’t go another day, remember he can and rest on him as your foundation. We can lean on Christ knowing that not only has he gone through what we’ve gone through, he’s seen worse. If there is anyone to take your worry, your shame, or general ish to, it’s him. I recently watched an interview with Rick Warren, the Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California. At the end of it he said “Everybody is betting their lives on something. I bet my life Jesus is who he says he is. I bet my life Jesus wasn’t a liar.” So, I am betting my life on Jesus as well. I will leave you with this question: What are you betting your life on?
-David Neds
Undivided Youth 