We the People of Johnson Co MO - Sunday, April 30, 2023 Thoughts on the "Covid" Lockdown.

Hi Folks,

Remember the Christian revival that broke out at the Asbury College earlier this year? I don’t know the long-term effects, but the Wall Street Journal recently ran an article headlined, “The Surprising Surge of Faith Among Young People.”

Other papers have run similar stories, such as the headline of “Predictions About the Decline of Christianity in America May Be Premature” in CNN of April 8th, and a story from the UK Telegraph, “Could Gen Z Save the Church of England?”

People think the resurgence of people aged 18 - 25 years in churches may be due to the pandemic and all the fear and suppression of freedom that accompanied it. In late 2022 a poll of this age group showed about one-third of them now believed there is a “higher power.”

Some have embraced church attendance, while others have turned to following social media sites of people who are openly religious. Their reasons can be summed up as: looking for a meaning in life so it’s not just random, and finding hope.

I’m not sure it’s just “young people.”

I’ve seen God working in me. Full disclosure: I’m not young. I’ve known God a long time, but for a bunch of years I’ve kept Him at arm’s length. In my early 30s I had spent more than 2 decades of getting to know God and growing that relationship. One of those decades I spent in serious time commitment to my church, teaching a college age Sunday School class (which I totally loved!) and literally spending about 18 hours weekly in some sort of church service or personal time with God.

I was happy. I had a horrible marriage, but the friends I had at church and my work at church gave me such a sense of meaning! I also had a career that was vastly interesting so I could, most of the time, smile and overlook the misery at home.

Long story short: my cousin whom I adored became mortally ill. He came to live with my husband and me. Another cousin who was in her college years, became suicidal and needed a change of living situation. She came to live with us as well. Life got weird. Around October I awoke in the middle of the night alone in my bed. Upon walking into my living room, I found my husband and girl cousin snuggled up together on the couch. Things went downhill from there.

They moved out, my dying cousin was constantly in and out of the hospital. His family kind of took over my house. In April my divorce was final, and despite the most fervent praying I’d ever done, my cousin Phillip died in June. I so wished it had been me instead of him.

Suddenly my home was empty. My life was empty. Ultimately my church decided I should not be teaching the college age class as a divorced single woman. That job I so loved went away, and as they say, “It was not on my terms.”

For the next 10 years I went on a desperate “church search” trying to find a new home. Nobody took me in.

So. I decided, “Fuck it.” If I’m serving and loving God, but then dumped on more than I’d ever experienced before in my life, and then can’t even find a new church home, I’d better be well-aware of “what God can do to me.” My “realization” was that God is a hideously scary person. He can be nice for a while but watch out Baby! When you LEAST expect it, He can slam you to the matt and destroy whatever He wants to.

I lived that way a long time. Keeping God at arm’s length. I was quite scared that one day if I got too close, He’d reach out and smack the living shit out of me. Again. It was an uneasy truce, and God had all the power. Hypervigilant distance was my only defense.

Whenever my family or other friends would talk to me about God, I’d be quiet and silently hum a tune in my head so I couldn’t hear them. Or I’d walk away. There was NO WAY I was going to get “vulnerable to God” again. Ever. He was a monster, and even if nobody else thought that I thought it enough for me, them, and anybody else who wanted to know.

So.

Then I met a man who showed me love. Go figure! Where did THAT come from? Kindness? Sweetness? Fun and funniness? And he kept saying he thought I was beautiful???? It was all VERY weird. And it changed my perspective.

Then covid came along. What insanity. SO many lies. And we were required to believe them or ELSE! We also were required to act as if lies were true. I realized the world as I knew it was moving away from me. Again.

I HAD to do SOMETHING!!!!! And I realized the only power great enough to not only STOP the insanity, but actually IMPROVE life was…God. Well, there’s a conundrum.

So…I started talking to Him again. I also talked with my sister who helped me find exactly the Christian educational and devotion materials God wanted for me. Sisters are like that. She told me she’d been praying for me all the years I was keeping God at bay. She asked God to bring me back. (Excuse me, I need to reach over here for a tissue.) I started feeling like He might…actually…love me. And maybe not kill me.

One day when I was doing Bible study, something hit me. Kind of like a rhinoceros at full charge. God didn’t dump on me. God saw ahead and knew all the things that were going to happen to me, so He put me as deeply into His Word and church as He could, so I’d have the support I needed to make it through the hurricane.

Full and complete STOP.

The sky got blue-er. The sun shone. I felt a new feeling. What was it? Incredulity? Joy? Astoundment? (I’m not sure that’s a real word…) Shock? I don’t know, but it was like a forty-foot-thick rebar reinforced wall of titanium, shattered. And God was on the other side, just waiting. For me.

It’s taken me a while, but I’m finally going to make my point. I see God working all around me. Every time I look, I see it more. I think God is shaking the living bejeezus out of us so we’ll wake up and realize He’s The Answer. He has ALL the power, ALL the love, and most of all, ALL the SECURITY we need. He has it ALL.

And He’s holding it out to us with a reality: You MUST trust and obey ME.

God told Soloman, “If My people, who are called by My Name will HUMBLE themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways — then - will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and HEAL THEIR LAND.”

Chapter 7 of 2nd Chronicles is really interesting. God is instructing Soloman how to build the temple and consecrate it to God. Soloman’s God. Soloman’s father, David’s God. There’s a history here.

The temple is the most magnificent building ever seen at that time by the Israelites, so God has some instructions on how to keep-up this astounding place to worship. They must stay humble. NOT self-sufficient, but constantly in touch with God for their needs.

They must talk with God. Bring Him their concerns and get his advice. That helps build the necessary trust. And love Him more.

God says, “Seek my face.” I’ll be honest, that has puzzled me a long time. What does that really MEAN? I went to Websters. They define seek as: to pursue, hunt, search for, chase down. How do I “hunt” God’s face????

I started thinking about a “face.” Faces smile, they frown, they give approval, they cry, they can make me feel secure, they speak without words. The idea of hunting for the look of love in God’s eyes made my brain stop for a moment.

Hunt for God’s eyes to show me Love. That’s worth hunting for. And that look of love will make me want to get rid of anything that keeps me away from God. Basically, anything that separates me from God is absolutely something I do not want in my life. It hurts.

So, God is telling Soloman that’s what is required. He then tells Soloman if His people do that, THAT will get His attention, bring Him close again, and HEAL whatever has happened in their land.

The amazing thing is that God tells Soloman all this while everything is still going good between them. It’s Soloman’s “way back” if they wander off, get all so self-sufficient, and don’t really “need” God. Or depend on other gods. Like money. Like constant productivity. Like the government. Like a job. Like status. Like looking wise and successful to others. Like the latest fad, phone, chat room, social ideology…you name it.

It’s the way back.

Let’s use that way back. And keep using it. And keep seeking the love in God’s face. God is working in us, His people, in a STRONG and constant way these days. And He’s helping folks who haven’t seen His love before, SEE it.

We’re the ones called by His Name. Let’s humble ourselves and WATCH for God’s eyes to show us love and guide us. Then take His hand and say, “Okay, let’s go.” Every day.

It’s a different way to live. I really like it.

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