By Veda Thomas Lucas
After twenty-three years together, I still considered ours a Cinderella story. I had met and married the man of my dreams. He was my Prince Charming and we were living out our happily ever after. Then came the cancer diagnosis: fourth stage adenoma carcinoma. From the onset, the prognosis was grim.
It was then our pastor, Brandon Pugh, suggested we read the article, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.”[1] The article was written by John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota and founder and leader of desiringGod.org, shortly before Piper’s prostate surgery in early 2006.
Once we read through the article, my husband and I were able to see our situation from a Christ honoring spiritual perspective rather than the fatalistic mindset we had developed. We decided to use the article as daily devotional material with our nine-year-old granddaughter. We hoped that she too could grow in her biblical understanding of how God works through life’s tragedies.
Today we are faced with a new tragedy. One that has already devastated much of our world: the Covid-19 pandemic. The two major truths I discovered while I faced my husband’s diagnosis of fourth stage adenoma carcinoma are as applicable for each of us now as they were for me then. These truths may ensure that we survive the Covid-19 pandemic and that God will make us productive throughout it (Genesis 41:52b NKJV).
Trust God Has a Purpose for Tragedies or Pandemics
First, we must trust that God has a purpose for tragedies or pandemics. This can be difficult to accept if we don’t know or believe the scriptures that teach God’s sovereignty. Sovereignty is defined as supreme power or controlling influence.[2] The belief in God’s sovereignty is what enabled Joseph in the book of Genesis to endure sequential tragic events. Not only did it enable him to endure them, but to prosper in them. It also empowered him to forgive his brothers who appeared to humanly engineer his harsh circumstances.
After the death of their father, Joseph’s brothers fully expected Joseph to repay them for the wrong they had done to him. Instead, when his brothers approached him pleading for mercy Joseph replied, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good (Genesis 50:15-20 NKJV).”
The term “good” as it is used here in Genesis means capable of accomplishing God’s designed purpose. [3] Joseph realized God had sovereignly placed him in a position second only to Pharaoh in order to save many people (Genesis 50:20b NKJV).
While God’s designed purpose for us through this pandemic may be entirely different than for Joseph, the Apostle Peter assures us that nothing affects a believer by mere happenstance.[4] Peter emphases the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish us through our sufferings (1 Peter 5:10 NKJV). In other words, God is sovereignly working through the events of our lives to mature us as Christians that we may accomplish His purposes for His glory whether by tragedy or pandemic or any other circumstance. In time of tragedy or pandemic, let us echo the words of Christ, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not my will but Yours be done (Luke 22:42 NKJV).
Glorifying God Must Be Our Ultimate Goal
Second, glorifying God must be our ultimate goal. If not, self-preservation at all cost will be. When my husband was diagnosed with cancer, my days and nights were consumed with how we could prolong my husband’s life or possibly beat the bleak odds of his survival. I found myself spending endless amounts of time searching through every internet site, probing for any information regarding how we could improve his prognoses. Bible reading and meditation were crowded out by my obsession with his cancer.
Not long after the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in our state, I found myself equally obsessed with it. I downloaded the Center for Disease Control app. Each day I’d check out a map highlighting the number of cases for each county and the death totals. I planned my schedule around our Governor’s 5 o’clock updates concerning the pandemic. Soon my desire to glorify God through the pandemic had taken a backseat to uncovering information about Covid-19.
Protecting my daughter with multiple autoimmune diseases became my ultimate focus. Then in a twenty-four hour period a friend’s daughter was rushed to the emergency room suffering horrendous gastrointestinal problems, another friend’s son died from complications of diabetes, and another friend’s eleven-year old daughter had a brain aneurysm. It was as if God said to me if he wanted to take my daughter’s life, he didn’t have to use Covid-19 to do it.
As difficult as it may be, self-preservation can’t be our ultimate goal. We must be as the Christians spoke of in Revelations 12:11 NKJV, “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. Our ultimate goal must be to exalt Christ whether by life or by death (Philippians 1:20 NKJV). When our ultimate goal is to glorify God and exalt Christ at all cost, no tragedy or pandemic can shake our faith or steal our peace.
I by no means want to minimize the seriousness of the personal tragedy us or our family members may be facing. Nor do I want us to ignore our responsibility to be safe at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, or the next pandemic that may be on the horizon. But, I do pray we are able to approach these and all difficult situations with a Christ honoring spiritual perspective that trust our Sovereign Savior, rather than with a fatalistic mindset that loses all hope. And, I pray that as we walk through our personal tragedy or this world wide pandemic we abundantly grow in our biblical understanding of how God works through them for our good and His glory.
[1] Piper, John. 2006. Desiring God. February 15. Accessed April 10, 2020.
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/dont-waste-your-cancer.
[2] “Sovereignty” Merriam-Webster. 1828. Accessed April 10, 2020. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sovereignty.
[3] Wenham, Gordon J. 1987. Genesis 1-15 in Word Biblical Commentary volume 1. Waco: Word Books.Pg. 18.
[4] “Happenstance” Merriam-Webster.
Veda's Vintage Views 