The year 2020 will not soon be forgotten by any of us. We have lived with the fear of COVID-19 since nearly the start of the year, our fears fueled by the uncertainty and ever-changing “guidelines” from the health experts as they tried to determine how best to keep us safe from this new and deadly virus. Our fears were intensified by the media who daily began to list new cases, hospitalizations, and death tolls, often including people who did not actually die of the virus at all.
We spent a summer of watching major Democrat cities burned and looted by BLM and Antifa while their mayors and governors did little to stop it. Conservative voices have been censored on Twitter and Facebook. YouTube has removed conservative videos from their website, and it has become difficult to find any article on Google that contradicts liberal and far left ideology. Those who have spoken out in defense of the President or of free speech have been forced to apologize and retract their words. Those who have refused to do so have lost their jobs. College campuses, where once the free debate of conflicting ideas was considered not only a Constitutional right, but also the bedrock of learning, have now become centers of prejudice and intolerance.
Those of us who are black have been told we are victims regardless of how successful our lives might be. And those who are white are told we were born racist and must repent of the “worship of whiteness.” Martin Luther King Jr., whose impassioned speeches ignited the call for equal civil rights for all Americans, would be appalled at how his dream of an America where skin color was meaningless has been twisted and discarded.
And now, the political Party who has supported the violence and the intolerance and the destruction of freedom of speech has apparently won the White House through questionable handling of votes across the country. Conservative Christians are filled with emotions ranging from anger to fear and depression. They see only a further eroding of morality and of the very qualities that enabled this country to become a bastion of freedom, a shining city on a hill, and the country that every nation on earth looks to when they are in need. But we must not let our despair take over our lives, for then, like Elijah hiding beneath his tree in the desert, we are not being useful for God. In Deuteronomy 31:6 we are reminded “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” That is not only hope, but certainty.
We are entering one of the two most important times of the year for Christians. This week we will celebrate Thanksgiving and only a month later, the birth of our Savior at Christmas. How can we go into these holidays without thanksgiving and hope? Paul, in his letter to the Romans writes, “ I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! . . . Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ’Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life?’ But what does the divine response say to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:1-5).
We are not alone. America has 205 million Christians and 50% of Americans belong to a church. 85% of conservatives are Christians, with the two largest groups among them being evangelical Christians and Catholics. And, as I wrote in an earlier post, we know the end of the story and God wins! We win! “Therefore. . . let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2a).
You may not be able to be with your family at Thanksgiving, but give thanks that you have a family with whom you can speak on the phone or on Skype. Be thankful that you have food to eat and warm clothing and a home. Many in the world do not. Be thankful that though many are contracting COVID, 99% of all individuals under the age of 65 survive it and 95% of those over 65 survive. Be thankful that there are still places where conservative voices can be heard. Be thankful that you can still worship God, read your Bible, talk about Jesus with others, and in most parts of the country, attend church. Be thankful for a Supreme Court whose majority will now make decisions based on what the Constitution says and not on what they wish it said. Be thankful that we are children of a loving God who gave His only Son as the sacrifice for our sins. Be thankful for Jesus and celebrate His birth next month with joy and hope. We indeed are a blessed people, and even if others mock us or even persecute us, we can follow the words of Paul to the Church in Thessalonica, “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
But to be thankful even in this year, we must remember to lay our burdens, our fears, our worry in the hands of the Lord and leave them there. Too often, when we pray, we tell God all of our problems and then pick them up and carry them away with us to worry over again. Worrying does us no good. Jesus asks in the Sermon on the Mount. “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” The answer of course is none of us. So, now, today, give up your burdens to God. Let go and let God!