Well, when you receive this musing, it will probably be coupled with the one for the following day. The events of life and ministry have been a little overwhelming today, throwing my hoped to be highly-structured day off track. This coronavirus, COVID-19, has posited a sense of paralytic malaise in the atmosphere. It’s akin to the atmospherics of a sci-fi movie in which the world has been invaded by a hostile alien force of unknown origin. This force in turn, has decimated the world, leaving the survivors lurking about seemingly in a trance, uncertain of what has been set loose amongst them, fearing for their own survival, not knowing exactly how to respond. It is this syndrome that sits atop the faces of almost everyone you encounter—in the streets, at the grocery store, and in the mirror. It is an imprecise fear merged into our calling forth of bravery. Amid much talking, we are speechless and dumbfounded. Life, as it has been known, has screeched to a grinding halt. How do you explain this? What can we say?
Echoing in my ears are words of the great apostle Paul who in his great treatise on salvation written to the church at Rome, and upon having masterfully demonstrated the hopelessly condemned state of humanity, with legal acumen, tears down the case he built with these simple words: “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 AV). Be encouraged today! God is for us!
Blessings,
Bishop Lambert W. Gates, Sr.