Galatians 5:13 “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.”
How to exercise freedom under the surreal circumstances of COVID-19? God neither wants his children to cower in fear, nor to behave recklessly. But apart from those two extremes, there is room in his family for a variety of responses to the crisis. If my tendency is toward caution, limited movement, and strict wearing of a facemask, I must not condemn a Christian brother or sister who takes a more relaxed approach. And if I lean toward nonchalance, I must not ridicule or impose on those who don’t think like me.
I confess that I struggle with this. Last week’s blog post stayed with me all week as I continued to observe the situation around me. I learned from a friend that his daughter recently returned from Atlanta, having gone there in April as a traveling nurse in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 cases. Two hundred medical bays had been setup in a convention center. Then, over the past month, only seventeen patients trickled in. My friend’s daughter idled with nothing to do. At last, she returned home. This is yet another piece of primary data contradicting the incessant doomsaying of the media.
This morning, I walked around my church alone under a glorious spring sky. I felt a kind of melancholy as I passed through empty parking lots and entered the prayer garden path while a crow complained loudly from above at my unwelcome presence. As I walked, I lifted up to God my church, my nation, and the world. I prayed for deliverance from whatever is going on. I prayed for wisdom, too, because I know my tendency to not be a rule follower, to question restraints that defy the plain facts and common sense, to reject what seems to me illogical. I very much need Galatians 5:13 as I encounter people and make decisions throughout the day. It helps to remind myself that God calls me to use my freedom to serve others. This is freedom worthy of true sons and daughters of the King.
Father, only you know what is truly going on and where things are headed with COVID-19. Help me remember that I am not responsible to know the unknowable, but I am responsible to use the freedom you have given me to love and serve others.
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This week: If you find yourself struggling with another person’s response to troubling circumstances, meditate on the verse above and also on Galatians 5:22-23 “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things.”