I used to think I had quite the grasp of what life was like before COVID became a pandemic. As Christians, it’s easy to get into a space where you feel so in tune with God, so much so that you can predict the outcome of your life. But God, being God, has His way of rocking the boat and checking our faith.
Right before COVID hit, I was in the ‘smooth’ of life. Things seemed to add up, and plans fell perfectly into place. I was quickly, yet steadily, approaching the desires I – for a long time – have had for my life. Surprisingly, even while COVID first hit my country, I was still feeling secure and in the right momentum. Now and then, I would catch myself thinking, ‘Am I just lucky or what? God surely has a way of preserving His people.’ I’m not saying that God changed His nature and stopped preserving His people. Not at all!
All I’m saying is that no one is immune to life – regardless of how close we feel connected to God.
It didn’t take too long before the shaking of the pandemic got to me. Neither I nor anyone I know got COVID, but I’d dare say that COVID got my finances. At first, I was still unshaken because I was so certain that God was with me and that the devil couldn’t have me, my family, or my finances. However, along the way, things continued to get hard. I slowly and painfully got to a place of surrender as I lost touch with my only income-generating avenue. While this painful period lasted a couple of months into 2021, I’ve seen things differently too.
- God is God – no matter what! I used to think I understood this fully, but every day I walk in the awareness of what this really means. Regardless of anything. In the highest of places and the lowest thereof. All the time. God is God.
- God is good. It doesn’t always feel like it, but it’s not supposed to. If we always felt good, then we would never regard or need God. But even in the thick of things, He is still good. His goodness is in how I am still breathing when many need to pay for the oxygen to get them to the next day. His goodness is in how all my bills still got paid, although I stopped earning money for months. He was good when I saw it, but He was that much greater when I didn’t.
- God is in control. I have, for the past few months of my life, felt out of control. Everything about life has seemingly been in control of everything and everyone else but me. Even things in the world have been chaotic and still are. But then ‘out of my control’ does not mean that no one is in control. There is One that is seated on His throne – unseated, unequaled and unrivaled by none. It is He that controls everything. Even the little things that I could claim that I controlled, God reminded me that I don’t. I am learning to be faithful especially in the little things – after all, I am only but a steward.
