I texted a dear friend late last night. I asked her to pray for me. I confessed I felt weary even though I know Galatians tells me not to! Nevertheless I was feeling weary of it all. It’s not anything new. It’s just 2020. It’s all just so disruptive, unpredictable, unstable, and cumulative.
2020, seriously go home.
I wish none of this had happened.
And if you love The Lord of the Rings like I do, that phrase, “I wish none of this had happened” instantly reminds you of a critical scene between Gandalf and Frodo. If you hate LOTR, I don’t even know how to help you. 😉
Frodo was feeling like I was——worse even. He’s like, “I’ll see your “COVID-19, Derecho Disaster” and I’ll raise you “Mortally Wounded by an Orc Blade and Hopelessly Lost in a Pitch Black Underground Mountain Maze Filled with Goblins, Chased By a Psycho Who Wants to Kill Me For The Ring Which I Must Destroy On This Impossible Quest Or The Forces of Evil Will Forever Defeat Anything Good and Lovely In This World.”
I’d be in a funk too, Frodo. Granted his is make-believe and ours is real life. But still.
And as expected, wise old Gandalf has a word in due season. When Frodo says, “I wish none of this had happened,” Gandalf explains:
“So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world than the forces of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”
Meant to.
What if we were born, lived our normal lives for years and years until March 2020, at which point we were meant to go through all the chaos we are going through?
Meant to——for what? Please. It’s not as if there’s an epic battle of good versus evil in which we are called to play an important role or anything.
Except there is. We certainly didn’t choose to live in such times. But here we are. We have to decide what we are going to do with the time that is given to us.
What should we do with the time that is given to us?
Have you noticed how neighbors are talking to neighbors suddenly? How months and months of isolation, followed by an impossibly rare natural disaster has broken down the barriers that were there three weeks ago? I bet many of you have met neighbors for the first time. I bet many of you have shared generators, hauled debris, have toiled blood, sweat, and tears side by side with people who last March you didn’t even know existed. I bet those people would now happily come over to your house for a cookout, for a bonfire, for a chance to retell the story of the storm. I bet you are in a position to “love your neighbor as yourself” like never before in your life.
What to do with the time that is given to us? How about the great commandment? How about the great commission? Love your Neighbors. Eventually make disciples of them.
I am seriously not a fan of this “COVID-19, Derecho Disaster.” But if we were meant to have it——that is an encouraging thought.
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
