In today’s post to his Jack’s Winning Words blog, Pastor Freed used this quote – “If you work hard and run straight, God’s gonna bless you sooner or later.” (Brian Carroll) He went on to relate about Brian, who works as a car concierge – a person who will do all of the work to buy a new car for you.
It seems like this current crisis has shown us how hard it is to wait for that blessing. We have become a nation that is used to instant gratification, sometimes without working at all. We no longer have the patience to write novels; so, we write Tweets. Out “knowledge “is served to us in sound bites, rather than in great lectures. We are not willing to self-quarantine to protect others because what we have to do we feel is more important. For us, waiting is the hard part. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.
We have also become a nation obsessed with getting on to the next big thing, owning the next new gadget or having the next new experience. That tends to downplay what we already have, what God has already given us, including the fact that we awoke this morning to another day. Rather than be thankful for what we have already been given, we are constantly striving for the next thing. Rather than enjoying the gifts that we have in hand, we are dissatisfied with what we have yet to achieve or possess. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.
This crisis and the Stay at Home time that was government mandated in many areas should have provided the time to pause and thank God for being alive, for not being sick and for all of the other things that you have. Instead, it has driven many to acts of stupidity or worse. Violence in domestic abuse cases is up, suicides are up, shootings are happening over the lack of a mask in public and armed demonstrators have taken to the streets demanding the right to congregate and get sick. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.
That’s not how it works. Start with the work hard and run straight part of today’s quote. Basically, that boils down to doing the right things. The right things never involve the anger and stupidity that some are displaying or the violence towards others. Loving thy neighbor as you love yourself does not involve yelling and screaming, or pushing and shoving. We were asked to do the right things by staying at home and practicing social distancing when in public. For many that was easy to comply with, but for a few who don’t have the patience to wait and help stop the spread of the disease, it was impossible. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.
We now enter a very dangerous phase of this crisis, when economic and political pressures are forcing government leaders to take actions that they know will cause an increase in the number of deaths – projections from models range as high as 400,000+. Government leaders have decided that the potential death toll is an acceptable trade-off to get the economy running again. We will all soon be at greater risk in our stores and restaurants, at our workplaces and in any gathering of people in public. Our scientists medical professionals have warned us and shown us data that says we are not ready to re-open the country. Our reply… We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.
Let’s hope that God takes pity on us. He has forgiven a foolish people before; maybe he will forgive us again. Maybe we should all pray for patience, rather than telling God…We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.
Lest we not be hypocrites, let’s also remember to pray for those who trespass against us (without their masks) as ask for forgiveness for our own trespasses.
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