Overflowing With Hope [Guest Post By My Dad]

Reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic vary widely.  

My daughter told me that she had to break up a fight between her 2 sons, ages 6 and 4 years.  After settling things down, she instructed the boys to hug each other. The older one, Dylan, who moments earlier had been trying to inflict pain on his brother, now expressed concern.  “I do not think we should hug because of the virus”.  

It is good to have at least a little humour, in the midst of sometimes overwhelming anxiety and fear.  

So much of the news centres on “shortages.”

Some of the shortages have been the result of some questionable human behaviour. My wife and I know a Walmart cashier in Southwestern Ontario who reported that one of her customers bought more than $800 worth of toilet paper during a single purchase! Evidently that man feared running out of that commodity.  

There have been real life-threatening shortages as well.  Shortages of essentials like PPE – before this pandemic, who knew that PPE stood for “personal protective equipment”?  And that PPE consisted of face shields, N-95 masks, surgical gowns and gloves?  Who has not been concerned about pending shortages of life-sustaining ventilators and associated ICU beds?  

But perhaps the greatest shortage of all has been that of hope.  

The number of those infected by the virus, as well as those dying as a result of such infections, continues to rapidly increase.  No one knows for sure when this will end. Will the apex (the height of the curve) of Covid-19 virus infections be reached in 14 days? 21 days? Or ____? Anxiety over this extreme health crisis is compounded by financial uncertainties. What will be the damage to the national economy? How will this affect my job? My business?  

Amidst such fear, hope is in short supply.  This has resulted in some extreme examples of misplaced hope. Consider the American couple who took their health into their own hands with tragic consequences. They heard of a clinical trial about to test the efficacy of an anti-malarial medication on patients infected with the Covid-19 virus. Noticing that one of their aquarium cleaning products apparently contained the same chemical, both the husband and wife ingested some of that cleaning product. Sadly, the husband died, while his wife was severely sickened.  

Where can we find hope, at a time like this? The Bible would encourage us to look to God.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit”

— Romans 15:13

Hope is not simply a matter of personality, something that some especially optimistic people have. Ultimate hope comes from the Lord. God knows the future, and is in control of it. More specifically, our Heavenly Father unfailingly loves us. Consequently, we are encouraged to trust God!  

We can ask The Lord  to give us hope even in the midst of these exceptionally trying circumstances. Indeed we can look to God to help us overflow with hope – to have hope that is so “contagious” that others will be encouraged to hope as well. Continue to hope in God. Continue to seek God for hope.  

Pastor Keven, Lead Pastor of Bethel Shawville

image: sourced via Pinterest