03092022_LbT_TwentyTwenty2

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began in the United States. The narrator reflects on their experiences leading up to the pandemic and how life changed. They initially underestimated the virus and believed it wouldn't affect them. They recall normal activities like hiking, going to restaurants, and attending church services. As the days went on, they began to realize the severity of the situation. The narrator reflects on the importance of living in the present and relying on God. They also mention their anticipation for spring break, but little did they know that their wishes for a longer break would be granted due to the pandemic. The narration ends with the realization that everything changed on March 11, 2020, when they attended an improv class and realized life would never be the same again. There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. This quote from the infamous Vladimir Lenin is a quote that rings true in this day and age. Welcome to Living by Thriving. Today is March 9th, 2022. Today we will be talking about 2020 and the two year anniversary of the pandemic beginning in the United States. I'm sure all of you who are listening are aware of how your life has changed over the past couple of years. Some of you may barely remember your life pre-pandemic, such as 2018, 2019, etc. So, with that in mind, let's talk about it. It may be a difficult subject for some, but it may also be a mundane time for others. It really depends on your circumstances. So I will tell you my story about 2020, and how I view the world and how that's changed, and how the gospel connects to all of these things. But my story of 2020 and the two year anniversary begins now. I remember the buildup to the week of March 7th through March 13th, 2020. The week did not come out of thin air, as the warning signs were all there. The coronavirus pandemic had already devastated countries across the globe, with the evidence horrifying and mortifying to behold. Deaths were piling well into the thousands each and every day in various countries. And this, along with the images of the hospitals and the overfilled caskets and empty churches, instilled a natural fear among the general populace throughout the world. However, I did notice a clear distinction between factual concepts and direct implications. What I mean by that is while the virus was quote, over there, end quote, in whatever faraway country in the nightly news that they covered, the overall sentiment of out of sight and out of mind created a false sense of invincibility in the United States of America. Sure, we could all feel scared about the virus, but it also wouldn't affect us like other people, or so we thought. Because we reside in the United States of America. We are a first world nation, a superpower. We are equipped to handle anything and everything that life throws at us, or so we thought. Saturday, March 7th, 2020. I woke up early on that Saturday, which is a rare and is still a rare occurrence for me. My day would be packed with activities, such as hiking with my church group and going to a quote, unquote, retreat. The hiking trail was packed with people, at least more than I expected. Walking up and down by following that natural elevation of the trail, I enjoyed the sights and sounds of God's creation. Contentment made me grin from ear to ear, because I was spending time with people I cared about in the backyard of God's design. How wonderful was that? How complete, how full, and how right, how appropriate. After the hike, the lunch lines were packed and the restaurant was filled to the brim, which is always guaranteed for good eateries. Sure, there was some subtle fear about COVID-19, or commonly referred to as the coronavirus, but as I looked back on it, it almost seemed like an entirely different world. But of course, not everything is revealed on the surface level. On that Saturday, I was slightly upset that my plans were changed. Although I did enjoy the hike, I wasn't supposed to be there at all. I had signed up for a retreat, but it got cancelled for an interesting reason. Because of that coronavirus mentioned earlier, now remember, this is before things shut down. This is before it totally clicked. You can know it in your head, but you may not believe it in your heart until it's too late. When that retreat was cancelled, I remember I felt a little disappointed, but also I felt that the organizers of the retreat were just overreacting a little bit. Because what, there were five cases in the state of Texas? Fifty? It's just too much, it's an overreaction, I was thinking. Sure, well at least there was a makeup event on campus that afternoon, as I was still in college at the time. But that's just a shell of an actual retreat, it's not really the real thing, of course. So I tried to reason with myself, saying that sure, coronavirus was dangerous, but it wouldn't hit Texas for at least another month, right? I mean, I have plans, I'm going to graduate in a couple of months, I have trips, I want to go on, I want to meet up with people, I want to live my life. My future plans are not going to be derailed because that just will not happen. That selfishness, along with the naive point of view, those would all be overridden in due time. But again, you have to remember, this is before things shut down. The before would not last for long. On that Saturday, the day proceeded onwards, the normal events continued, went to a drink place, a boba shop, talked to some people in a large group, completely normal things, of course. I even bumped into some random students to help them with a film project. Just a coincidence, just a minor thing. That can happen every so often, you bump into someone randomly on campus, it's normal. You can take it for granted, because that will not go away until you leave. Such minute events can be forgotten about relatively quickly. From the highest of joys to the lowest of sorrows, being in college is a box of chocolates. You don't know what you're going to get every single day, and that's a good thing, because variety is the spice of life. The little things do matter as much, if not more, than the big things, because each moment is an opportunity and a gift. And in these past two years, I think many of us have realized that more than ever before. And as that Saturday closed, I looked forward to more exciting memories in the months to come. Sunday, March 8th, 2020. If only I knew what I know now. They say hindsight is 20-20, but the meaning of the quote changes when you remove that slash. On that Sunday, the last normal Sunday, I attended a regular in-person church service. Maybe a couple people wore masks, but those are just people who are freaking out. They're overreacting. It's no big deal. I did not remember much from that particular day, because it blended in so smoothly with other Sundays of the past. Just a routine, habitual checkmark to cross off for the day. There'll still be Sunday service next week, because it always has been and always will be. So I do not need to pay special attention to today. Now, if you've been paying attention so far, you should realize that not everything I'm saying should be taken literally. But when we do look back on our lives, we do notice something a little peculiar. Whatever we define as normal is weird, because normal things are always the next things to do, because normal is not extraordinary by definition. You're going to eat a meal tomorrow, so you're going to live it in the future. I'm going to do an activity tomorrow, it's going to be done in the future. So why do we view life as something to be lived in the future? I'll do this tomorrow, I'll do this tomorrow, I'll plan this next week, I'll finish it next month, I'll reconcile eventually. Excuses that chip away at the foundations of our choices and our responsibility to take care of our needs as soon as we can in due time, not to push it to an unknown future. There are many things I would change if I could redo 2020, but change does not come by whimpering or wishing about the past, because the past is gone. The present is what we have. The future is no guarantee. If we make tangible steps and goals, perhaps we can change now to improve ourselves for the future. Because no matter what we endure in the past, no guarantee of self-improvement exists just because of past experiences. We must fully rely on God. He is the one who sustains us, unless the time passes us all by and we look back and the works we did on the earth did not glorify God. It was all for nothing. We don't want that to be the case. We don't want to go through the motions of life. Hope 2020 has been a wake-up call for all of us. That Sunday came to an end, and again, I remember very little from it. Monday, March 9th, 2020. The alarm clock rang in the morning. Another normal day of college begins. Normal. What a word. Tuesday, March 10th, 2020. Spring break is next week. It begins March 16th. Spring break is a fun time. It's a chance to enjoy some time off of classes, to travel to places near or far, or just to do nothing productive at all. It's the freedom of an entire week that makes people excited, and it made me excited for sure. So my thoughts were distracted on spring break, and again, not fully living in the present. I thought if only it were longer in college and in high school for breaks, such as Thanksgiving break and Christmas break as well. Another week or two maybe for spring break. Maybe spring break could last two weeks. If it lasted two weeks, that would be great. Those who go to UT Dallas know and wince because they know what is to come. But if you don't, listen on. The one week of spring break always ends too soon. This thought kind of melted away as I got older because I learned to enjoy whatever was given more and more. But I can't guarantee that the thought never crossed my mind. It probably crossed my mind a couple of times in the past, and it did cross my mind that week as well. I want breaks to be longer. Breaks are good. Breaks maybe two weeks. That'd be great. If only, right? If only. Be careful what you wish for. This is it. Wednesday, March 11, 2020. In two days, it will be two years since that day. And if you don't remember the exact day, it's this one. You remember where you were at. You remember what you were doing. You know who you were talking to if you were talking to somebody. You know what you were watching. You know what you saw. When you realized, sooner or later, that life would not be the same again, you know, and it was on this day, that it happened to me. On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, I went to an improv class at 11.30 a.m. It was a little bit of a struggle for me sometimes, given my poor sleeping habits in college, but I make it to the lecture safely and promptly at 11.30 too. I overhear some students talking. It's now an epidemic? I heard cluelessly. What I had half heard, epidemic, that I actually misheard, would be a word I struggled to come up with at that moment, but is now a word ingrained in the public vernacular. Pandemic. Oh. The virus is now a pandemic, I said. Who said that? The World Health Organization or WHO. Oh, it'll be in Texas in a few weeks then, as I justified my previous thoughts. I thought some other students were overreacting, because after all, there is Ebola, there is the other swine flu, there's the other health scares of the past. These fears just rely on the media's sensationalism and paranoia, I thought. I didn't think that COVID was nothing, but I had confidence that the United States of America would handle the pandemic well. Of course they would, right? At lunch, I had a final meal with the students from that class. I did not know it at the time, of course. I just assumed it was another meal. The hours rolled along, and eventually I drove home. That day was about to turn into dusk. Now in the past, because I commuted to college, I would just choose to stay at home through the evening, get some rest, get ready for tomorrow. Because I'm tired, and that's the easy, comfortable thing to do. But on that night, I drove back to campus for a college event. So at that time, I was kind of just hopping around to different organizations. It was my senior year, I didn't have that many classes. Just go to whatever's available, or I know people are at, or a Christian organization, or whatever. Just live it. So I went to a Christian organization meeting. But, to be honest, I don't remember too much from that evening. Because I sat down, the speaker spoke something, I don't remember what it was exactly. I'm sure it was good though, but that was on me just to not listen to it, because I was tired. The clock ticked to 8pm. I was distracted, I opened up social media, I opened up Twitter while listening to the speaker, who I couldn't remember, and their words I could not repeat. I scrolled the latest tweets. The tweets are usually mundane, or just filled with people complaining about things, Twitter as normal. Random election news, businesses limiting max capacity, NBA canceling their season. So, wait. What? The NBA suspending their season? And that was a tweet from a very reliable account, Wojnarowski, or Woj for short. I read the words again, and again. I understood what they meant. It's not the most complex sentence in the world. But to me, those words were impossible. I scrolled through Twitter again. It also said Tom Hanks had contracted coronavirus. I glimpsed around at other people in that room. They hadn't seen Twitter, because they were actually paying attention to the message, being good students and all. But, I looked around, and I saw their faces. They were unaware. They would have their moment sooner or later, but I knew my moment, and it was there. The moment when you knew things would not be the same again. The NBA would never cancel over a minor thing. That's millions, if not billions of dollars of revenue lost. Vegas doesn't shut down over anything. Yet they were both going to close. The room that night was still packed. I wanted a stopwatch to pause time, and I didn't want my stopwatch to break. I just wanted it to pause. For a moment. Just to brace myself for what was coming. Deny the reality of what lay ahead. But I couldn't stop it. It had finally clicked, mentally. It was over. My college life, or at least how I knew of it, was done. Over. No ceremonial end. No perfect ending. No planned ending. I was simply on borrowed time for the rest of the week. And that was it. How unfair. To be on borrowed time. But isn't... But! Isn't that always the case? With our lives? With our... choices? With the gifts we have? Thursday, March 12th, 2020. The alarm clock rang, but another normal day of college would never return. While that Wednesday had ended in a blur, I woke up on Thursday with clarity, because it had clicked. This is it. It's over. It's done. What I knew in the past, in my head, has finally been linked to my heart. I felt grateful for a past memory around March 5th. I had said goodbye to a friend who had traveled to a different state to start spring break early. And when I said goodbye, I gave him a hug, and I told him something along these lines. I don't know when we will see each other again. This just might be it. I somewhat believed what I had said in the moment because of the COVID news, but not 100%. Again, that was before it clicked. But for some reason, I felt compelled to say it. And as I look back at it now, the words were eerily prophetic. The world I knew was about to permanently change. I drove to the campus that Thursday just to be there, even though I had no classes that day. I wasn't trying to meet a friend, or anyone else in particular. I just wanted to be there, because I knew time was up. I walked to the center of the campus. If you go to UT Dallas, there is a weird fountain-looking thingy that's silver metallic. It's called the Plinth. If you go to UT Dallas, you know what I mean. If you don't go to UT Dallas, you're probably confused. But that's UT Dallas, so just accept it. It's named the Plinth because of its awkward fountain bulge at its center. Again, if you have a computer, just look it up. You'll see it. It's interesting. Let's just say it's unique. So, I bumped into another student when I got to campus, and I caught half of what he said. Something that UTD just sent out. What? UTD is extending spring break for one additional week, and is going completely virtual the rest of the semester. But thanks for letting me know, I replied. This was no surprise to me. But it was the final confirmation of my previous realization. This was it. And my memory is a little bit foggy. Maybe he didn't say the rest of the semester virtually, but that's what I heard. Because sometimes you just know. Sometimes. So now, I have to frantically text people who I was planning to meet up with that week, next week, next month, Hey! Can we meet later today? Can we meet in a few hours? But what do you mean meet in a few hours? Yeah, well, there's not going to be a next week. We have to meet now. So, I was truly living in that moment as if I had no tomorrow. Which, isn't that how we should live? Not recklessly, of course, but with present-minded focus, not taking another day for granted? Maybe that's what we always should do. I know that's what I always should have done. A sad evening lay in store. The Christian fellowship I attended regularly, they were holding their last in-person large group. And I know they've had more, I think in 2022, and maybe late 21, but even that was more recent. It took that long to even restart that. So it was about three-fourths normal capacity. And the emotions among the faithful were mixed. I wrote down that night that I was saddened, disappointed, and uncertain, or something along those lines. But the tears flowed down for some of them, and the pain flowed through nearly all. I felt overwhelmed with questions and confusion. And as I sat in my car in the silence of the night, I was speechless. But I was rambling in my thoughts. In my mind, I was thinking, with my selfish point of view, this wasn't how it was supposed to end. I had plans to do so-and-so. I wanted to go to this end-of-semester trip, and so forth. Why now? Why not next year, or last year? Again, selfishly. I don't condone my thought process, but I do understand why I did that. Because the experience felt traumatizing. Now, looking back at it, of course it's a selfish point of view. There's so many people around the world suffering more than just my inconveniences. But isn't that how we think? A lot? Just from our own point of view. Our selfish, natural tendencies. But Christ called us to focus on Himself first, and to love others next. Again, that's a transformation. But that could be more of a talk for another time. So, I pleaded with God, and asked Him to not do this to me. And I half-prayed, again, in a selfish manner. But I didn't hear a still, small voice, like in the Scriptures. No answer came at all. The silence was deafening, as it pierced through the darkness of the night. I tried to message some people just to say, hey, can I stay somewhere on campus, like at someone's apartment, just so I can process this and talk to people. One hospitable student accepted, and I'm thankful for that. Even though what I said didn't really make much sense, or half-sense at most, I'm glad He allowed me to continue, until it was time to head home. So, Larry, thank you, if you're listening to this. Thank you for letting me in. I still remember that night. I still appreciate you listening, even if it didn't make sense. So, thank you. I said yet another, quote-unquote, final farewell to people. And then I closed the door to the apartment, and went home. Friday, March 13th. Friday the 13th, right? So my Friday the 13th was a Wednesday. On Friday morning, as one of the meal plans I had made with a friend fell apart without warning, because that's life, the anger in my heart had given way to numbness. What would normally make me upset, it just made me feel indifferent. Okay, so I lost contact with somebody, and maybe permanently, but isn't that the case for most people now? Permanently? That's just the way it's going to be. Because I was optimistic and cheerful, but I didn't even know what to say now. Remember when I said things felt complete at that hike? Even though my retreat plans had been cancelled, I viewed it optimistically. But now I felt the opposite. How incomplete this all is. Empty and wrong. This shouldn't be how things are. And as long as we're on a fallen and broken world, I think it's very normal for Christians to have that mentality. How incomplete, twisted the world is. Because until we make it home, there's going to be some messed up things. And even in pre-COVID times, the world is still messed up. Even though it has improved, supposedly, drastically, at least in quality of life. But there are plenty of problems before COVID, there will be plenty more after. Things are never perfect, and they won't be until Christ returns again. Until Christ returns again. So we long for his returning. But we must continue to wait. But back to Friday the 13th. What should I even do now? I had a late afternoon brunch with another friend, and I said yet another quote-unquote final farewell. Oh boy. What to do? The campus was emptying out, and I tried to find some event going on, but I didn't want to leave just yet. I just couldn't let go. Yet. So I looked around for any other Christian organizations, or just organizations in general, doing something on that day. And oh, I see there's a Christian organization event going on Friday evening. Well what better do I have to do? Might as well just attend. So sure, I'll attend this one. Besides, what's the point of not going? I won't be going anytime soon to any event. So let's just go now. Again, I wasn't really thinking about I might get coronavirus during that. My mind was just I can't let go of my current reality. Even as the world started to move on, I'm not ready to step out into the unknown. Because when we are faced with uncertainty, we tend to cling on to what we are familiar with for better and for worse. So keep that in mind as you go through life. Make sure you cling on to the solid rock, Christ, the solid rock upon which we stand. Because all other ground is sinking sand. So be familiar with Christ at the very least. So, I just wanted to experience an on-campus event one more time. One final event. One last raging against the light fading of the dying of my plans. A portion of my hopes and a sliver of my dreams. As if this one event could somehow prevent the inevitable. As if somehow this one event could change the trajectory of my days and weeks to come. It's preposterous. Because it's just one event. It's not going to stop COVID. It's not going to change anything inside of me. It's just an event that will run for a couple hours and that's it. However, God had some other ideas. Sometimes one event is enough. Sometimes one message is all you really need to hear. One chapter is all you need to read. Of course, you should read more than one chapter. You can't listen to more than one sermon. You can go to more than one worship service, but sometimes you just need to start at one. Go. Cross off the excuses. Just go. Sometimes one really is enough. The sermon that Friday evening was over the Beatitudes. The topic was fitting. Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the lowly. It was just bittersweet. It's a somber mood over all the congregants. We start to realize the reality when they announce that it would not be an in-person event two weeks from now after the spring break. That it's just unknown. Just like the Thursday date event. We don't know when we're going to meet up again. Uncertainty. A factor of life. I heard radio silence. Still, for my prayers and supplications I hadn't heard anything from God. No verse stood out to me. When things like that happen, you start to doubt on the inside. Like you know in your head what you believe, but is it really true? Maybe I'm just talking to myself. No, of course not. There is a God. Stop snap out of it, me. Maybe I am just talking to myself. Giving myself empty words of false comfort and delusion. Was this how things always were? Senseless? Pointless? No direction? Because I always try in my life to rationalize events when things go wrong. How they're working towards a bigger and better part of God's plan or is a part of testing that builds my character. Because there's always someone smarter and always someone more experienced who has been through that experience in the past. They know, so that helps me. But this is on an entirely different level. Because I felt no one knew what would come next. No higher authority, no experienced teacher could dictate the right things to say or do. So with this mindset, I set up for the final song. Again, this is it. My emotions continue to cloud my overall awareness of my surroundings, just the other things going on in the room. The shadow of the future seemed as dark as the shadow of death. But right when I thought God would not speak for a while, he did. He spoke through the lyrics of the song. And I'll read it to you, and I'll play it to you as well. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness steadfast, O Lord. Great is Thy faithfulness. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord. Great is Thy faithfulness. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord. Great is Thy faithfulness. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord. Great is Thy faithfulness. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord. Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord. Great is Thy faithfulness. Now the words may not be the most groundbreaking or theologically complex, and the YouTube video, you know, if you listen to it, which I just played, it may not stir up much emotion within you, personally, but it's what I needed to hear. Because it wasn't just the people in that room of true, authentic worship. They're crying out to God. It's not just a psychological delusion. They are filled with the Holy Spirit, full of confidence in the blessed assurance and hope of Jesus Christ. The hope and the peace from God that transcends all understanding, and I felt it in that moment. I knew it. Not just felt it. I knew it as well. It's His peace. I don't know what's coming next, but I can trust God in total confidence. And as the weeks passed on, I still did not know what would happen with COVID. There was still so much uncertainty. No guarantees tomorrow would be better than today. And if I did not have the answers to my most urging questions, at least I knew who did. So that week, two years ago, was defined by my own self-searching on the future, my own rationalization of events, and my own perception of the meaning behind it all. As my exhaustion persisted, I needed to find some rest. Yet I pressed onwards, letting what I could see envelop what I could not see. But after the days of my soul-searching, I knew at the end that all along, I already had God, who I needed. And finally, I could look fully upwards to Jesus and find His rest with the peace that transcends all understanding. Looking back on that week, that unforgettable week, I can clearly see the two paths before me, a path of self-reliance and certainty, or a path of staying my foundation on the rock of certainty. And also that uncertainty, which I may have said certainty back then, but I meant uncertainty, that's just a fan, and Christ is a solid rock. I will choose not to rely on my own weak, faulty judgment, but I must cast my burdens on the Messiah who carries them. Life by itself is a gift. Each new day produces new blessings, regardless of your circumstances. I can continue to experience the love of God, the comfort of His peace and His blessings in full. When I realize that true joy from God is not dictated by my circumstances, I can boldly approach His throne, confident in whatever this life has to offer, knowing God is with me regardless of what happens next. And for the past 30 or so minutes, I've been reading what I wrote from 2021 about 2020. So yeah, that's not my memory being incredibly sharp, that's just my memory from a year ago. I forgot some of those details in a year's time. And now, I'm going to depart from the written blog, or just the written words. Now it's all the next year. So 2021 to 2022, what has changed in that year? So, we have the vaccines, and all the controversy behind that, but we're not going to dive into that controversy today. Maybe another time, but not today. In Texas, we had the Snowmageddon event in February of 2021, and in early 2022, we also had scares of another ice freeze, but it turns out that didn't happen, thankfully. 2021 also had a new U.S. president take over in Washington D.C. Again, not going to talk too much about that today, maybe another time. 2021 for me was better in the sense of I'm being able to travel more, going to different states, just being able to see friends in person again. All that on the surface is better. But of course it's not always that easy. Because as I go on, into still uncertain futures, there's still problems. Families can have, my own family can have health crises, which they did. There can be new problems, even when new solutions occur. Work is not always the easiest route or path. And the objectives for work can seem endless. It can feel like 2020 is over and yet will never end. Because the masks are still on, or even if they're not on, the effects of COVID cannot be erased. It is ingrained now in American culture and society. It's a political issue, and that will not go away, even if COVID were eradicated tomorrow. It's a permanent change. And to those who don't want that change, I'm sorry to tell you, that's just the way it is. So 2021 to 2022, it's also interesting just to look back at 2021, because change can be multi-dimensional as well. So change occurred as well, just in friendships, who I'm close to, not as close to now, and it's not anyone's fault, necessarily. It is just because that's how life works. As environments change and as situations change, your friends may change as well. Not all of them, of course, well, Lord willing, but some. But again, looking back at those lessons from a year ago, I have to look at my own mentality now, two years later. Have I really changed for the better? Have I managed to find a way to live by thriving, by really embracing the present? And of course there's ups and downs in life, but I must continue to rely on God, and I must continue to not let my failures in the past dictate who I am now. Because God is not the God of condemnation, but He is a God of love and of justice. He is the God of the universe. He and His ways are above my ways. He promises hope and a future, or as another translation says, hope and an expected end. And I like to interpret that expected end as peace. God's plan from before the fall in the Garden of Eden. The expected end, which is no end. Eternal life. Now, that may be one way to interpret it. There's probably other ways to interpret it as well, but hope and a future, hope and an expected end, it's all good. That's what we should remember. Because God is good. And these past couple years it can be easy to doubt that He is still good. But His promises are true, and they have endured generation through generation. So in these turbulent times we can continue to trust in Him. Sometimes the devil or the demons are unleashed by the devil. They don't lie to you, obviously. They lie subtly. They lie through deception. The devil can appear as an angel of light, and also like a roaring lion. Imitating looking like God, but being the exact opposite. The lies are subtle. You failed in the past, so you won't be able to succeed in the future. And you deserve what is happening to you now because of your past failure. The gospel says you may have failed in the past, and you may still be failing now, but that is not your identity. That's not who you are. You have the joy that is found within you from the Holy Spirit who lives within you because that joy does not depend on circumstances. It doesn't depend on circumstances. And oftentimes, those who grow closest to God can feel the most spiritual dejection as we see the prophet Elijah. He wanted to die when he felt he was the only righteous person left on earth. But yet God didn't forsake him, and he won't forsake you as long as you cling to him. As long as you trust in him. Even if it feels like he's not there, sometimes you may be the only righteous person left on earth. So, let's go back. A couple days ago, this year, I went to a church retreat. A church retreat was talking about some interesting themes such as forgiveness. Forgiveness is where you acknowledge someone's responsibility for the actions they did wrong, yet choose to pardon anyways instead of just merely overlooking it. Also, spiritual dejection, as I'd say with Elijah, and then failure as well. Failure also can impact people's lives, but we shouldn't let failure define who we are. But we shouldn't cover it up either, because God uses our failures and our weaknesses for his glory. So it's all about that transparency. And church is that place where we should share and be vulnerable about it if you're at a good church. But yeah, that's getting a little bit off topic. I'll keep talking more about that another time. 2022. Two years after COVID. So, 2020, I remember on January 2nd, I saw a stupid internet meme basically said there's like a pandemic every hundred years, 1820, 1920, 2020. And now there is a mysterious pneumonia in Wuhan, China. I remember seeing that meme. I thought nothing much of it. But that was when I first saw it. You first saw it earlier in January, or maybe February, or latest in March, but that's when it all began. Now two years later, March 2022, we have a new crisis in our hands. Maybe not new, because it's a more familiar crisis. A crisis... No, I'm not talking about elections, even though that may be part of it. And I'm not talking about the response to COVID in either direction, either. Although, that may be a topic for another day, again. But, if you've been following the news since February 24th, 2022, or the 23rd, depending on your time zone in the world, the quote-unquote military operation began in Ukraine, and Russian troops crossed the border for a quote-unquote denazification? And, maybe not exact quote, but demilitarization of Ukraine. In other words, an invasion of Ukraine, or war in Ukraine, which the Russian leadership does not want to say, because that contradicts their official narrative. Maybe I'll talk more in depth about that another day as well. But that's the current tension in the world right now. Finally, we thought, after two years of COVID, coronavirus, pandemic, Delta variant, Omicron variant, all these variants, and the vaccine controversies, and vaccines, do they work? Yes, they do. No, they don't. You should wear the mask. You shouldn't wear the mask. Get rid of the mandates. Keep the mandates. All that stuff. We thought it was finally coming to an end, and it may still be. But now we got war? We have military-armed conflicts? In Europe? And it may be because of Eurocentric bias, but there have been plenty of military conflicts before this one. It's just the location, the geography of this is what's surprising. But military conflicts have been ongoing well before 2022. So that's not unique to the world. It's just unique to Europe. But again, not to downplay what's going on in Europe, but also to give the context of the bigger picture. But with this invasion of Ukraine, now there's more uncertainty. Just like before. Uncertainty. How fun, right? You see the headlines these days, talking about the nuclear power plant, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the second nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest power plant in Europe, or one of the largest ones, I don't remember the name off the top of my head, but trust me, it's there. Will they leak? Will they be destroyed? Will there be another Chernobyl-like crisis in Europe? Putin activated his strategic nuclear forces to place them on high alert. Will he use the nukes? Will he use chemical weapons? Is the West trying to force Putin's hand to generate an armed conflict? Are the gas prices going to go down? Are the gas prices going to go up? Are we heading to a great recession in the United States? Is the war in Europe going to expand beyond Ukraine? Is war going to begin elsewhere in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, with tensions all over the place? More uncertainty than ever before. And some of us want to return to the free 2020 days, but we have to face it. The world has changed as a result of COVID, and that world before 2020 is not coming back. Just like the world before September 11th is not coming back. For those younger viewers, you may not remember what the world was like before September 11th, but for older listeners, you remember. You know what it was like before 9-11. You missed those days, but they're not coming back. Whatever world event was your event that changed the world or changed your country, whatever part of the world you're in, you remember. You know that those days are not coming back. It is a tough and harsh fact to swallow, and I wish that wasn't the case. Good thing for believers as Christians, we do have a glorious future to look forward to. One that is full of hope. One that is full of wrongs made right. Justice and peace. That's not going to be found in this world. It's going to be found in the heavenly kingdom, in the new heaven and the new earth. That's where it's going to be found. Amen to that. But uncertainty is still prevalent. On this March 9th, 2022, a Wednesday evening, people can make predictions about how things will go, but those are just predictions. So how can we hold fast to God and still enjoy His blessings without being consumed by fear, which may be more justifiable now than ever before? Well, if I remember God's promises and remember His truth, that does not change from age to age, from generation to generation, from year to year, from circumstance to circumstance, because God is in control. Even when it feels like things are spiraling out of control. If our faith is only contingent on good things, then what does that make us? That makes us no different than the world, who loves those who love them back. If our faith is merely contingent on being comfortable or being happy, again, what difference does that make with us compared to the world? Our faith gives us joy because of who we place our faith in, who is Jesus Christ. That's why even through these harsh, difficult, uncertain times, we can still have hope in God, even if the near future looks bleak, because it is bleak and grim. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. This may not be a good time in the world. People in the past, World War II in the 40s, and, sorry, from 39 to 45, they didn't want to live through that, I can guarantee it, but they lived through it. Many fought on the front lines for their countries and died because of it. These are tough times. World War I, the lost generation, 1914 to 1918. They also didn't want to live through it, but they lived through it and fought. Those times, those terrible times of the past, people thought would never happen again. But we look at Revelation, the last book of the Bible, we hear about all the terrible things, and whether you think it's literal or figurative, or whether it's set for the future or set in the past, however you interpret it, it's not a comfortable book. Going beyond the confusing portions, the plagues, the wrath, the devastation, none of that is what we envision as a idealistic future. But again, however you interpret it, it's not a good picture at first. But good thing in the end, things are made right. Again, he is there at the end, but also not yet in our now, because he transcends through time and space. It's a very interesting concept and an interesting fact. So I was listening to some music recently, and Rich Mullins is one of those Christian contemporary music artists that I always have respected, just because of the lyrics he uses for his songs. It's definitely something that I find interesting to ponder upon. You could tell he was close to God throughout his life. He died in 1997, the year I was born in. And the reason why I mention that morbid fact is because of one of the songs he wrote. I'm going to read the lyrics to you. I'll also probably play it to you as well. And the song is called Be With You. And the lyrics are as follows. Everybody needs you now. We're gonna die eventually. It's no more or less our fault. It is our destiny. So now Lord, I come to you asking only for your grace. You know what I've put myself through. All those empty dreams I chase. When my body lies in the ruins of the life that nearly ruined me. Will you pick up the pieces that were pure and true and breathe your life into them and let them breathe? When you start this world over again from scratch, will you make me a new life, just a sad life, something pure and golden, clear and glad could ever be? Can I be with you? Can I be with you? Everybody needs the day that we are born. We have to learn to walk beneath those mercies by which we are drawn. Now we wrestle in the dark with these angels that we can't see. We will move on, although the scars, oh Lord, will be inside of me. And when my body lies in the ruins of the life that nearly ruined me. Will you pick up the pieces that were pure and true and breathe your life into them and let them breathe? When you blast this cosmos to keep them calm, when those jaggedy mountains of love are gone, when the sky drops the tears of a thousand falling suns, when they crash into the sea, can I be with you? Can I be with you? Everybody, each and all, we're gonna die eventually. It's no more or less our fault than it is our destiny. So now, Lord, I come to you asking only for your grace. You know what I've put myself through, all those empty dreams I chased. And when my body lies in the ruins of the life that nearly ruined me, will you pick up the pieces that were pure and true and breathe your life into them and set them free? And when you start this world over again from scratch, will you make me anew out of the stuff that lasts? Stuff that's purer than gold is and clearer than glass could ever be. Can I be with you? Can I be with you? And the last verse as well. And when you blast this cosmos to kingdom come, when those jagged-edged mountains I love are gone, when the sky is crossed with the tears of a thousand falling suns as they crash into the sea, can I be with you? Can I be with you? Again, rest in peace to Rich Mullen. It makes the song more poignant now that he's been gone from the earth for 24 years. But his prayer, if you consider this song as prayer, did come true. He was a believer in Christ. So we do believe that although his body now lies in the grave, God will pick up his pieces. He will breathe his life into them and give him eternal life as he has it. And I really enjoy this song just because it doesn't sugarcoat things. We are all going to die eventually. So we need to make our lives right with God. So now, he says he comes to God asking only for his grace. Empty dreams he chased, maybe empty dreams we have chased as well throughout our lives. And one day our lives will come to an end. Maybe not in the way we want it to be. But we have to hope that God will breathe his life into us, set us free from the chains of death and the glorious resurrection. When the dead who are in Christ awaken from their spiritual slumber and arise to be with him forever. When God starts the world over again from scratch and he makes the new heaven and the new earth, can we be with God? Well, if we have Jesus Christ, we will be with God. And that last verse, when God blasts this cosmos, the kingdom comes. When the sky crossed with tears of a thousand falling suns crash into the sea, can I be with you? Can we be with God? If we have Jesus, even when these insane supernatural things occur, we are more beyond the uncertainty of today. Think about how uncertain those lyrics are. When the stars are crashing like a thousand falling suns, when the cosmos gets destroyed, when the cataclysmic end occurs, those times as well, as in all times, God is in control. So we have to wrestle and really just ponder our eternal security. Are we in Christ? If we are not, the clock is ticking and the time may run out sooner than you think. But if you are, then you're living an eternal life now, and you will be resurrected in the future. And so we have this hope that transcends through all this uncertainty. We mourn over the civilian casualties, fatalities of those who have been killed in the military conflict, not just in Ukraine, but in Afghanistan and other places throughout the world. We mourn. We know that this world has fallen. We pray for God's justice. We know he tarries. We know he waits. So when he does return, his justice will be swift. His justice will be complete. Just as he rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, they did not expect it that day, but the justice came. When God flooded the earth and Noah and his family escaped on the ark, the people of the earth did not expect his justice, but it occurred and it came anyways. So it will be on the day of the Son of Man when he returns. His justice returns to make all wrongs right. He comes without warning. It's not like a movie where there's a struggle. It's quick. It's instantaneous. When the armies of the world surround those whom God loves, he rains his justice and judgment on them and it's over just like that. That's how certain his final victory is over death and evil. That's the most certain future and certain eternity we can have. So as we approach that day and it's getting closer than it ever has been, whether in our lifetimes, the next generation, or even thousands of years from now or whenever it occurs, we must be ready. We must be prepared. We must cling on to God and we must live differently than the world who has no hope. We must live as if we have hope because we do. Our actions when we continue to experience joy, even through pandemics, even through wars, pestilence, famine, heartbreak, and death, even through all these terrible things, we still have joy because it's found in Christ. When we do that, we know we are a part of Christ and we know that those actions we cannot do on our own. It's only because of God working through us. So don't try to rely on yourself for that. Don't try to predict when it will happen or how your life will end. Just trust. Trust and obey. Continue to walk close to God. This is 2022 and each day we have is a gift from God. It's a blessing. I think we should know now more than ever before that life is not guaranteed and it is precious. Let's make it count. Let's make it matter. Let's make it for God's glory. I'm confident we will make it to 2023. But I was also confident there wouldn't be a pandemic in 2020. No matter how unlikely things may seem, no matter how unlikely it is that tomorrow or today is your last day, no matter how unlikely it is that catastrophe will occur or will not occur, life is unpredictable. Maybe things just get better from here for a long time, for the rest of our lives. Maybe it gets worse rapidly. Only God knows, so it is pointless to try to predict. Instead, continue to rely on God. Continue to place our hope in Him and we will continue to be blessed with joy even when we go through sufferings. Even when our prosperity crashes down and is destroyed, we can still experience His hope. We can still experience His love. We will still experience His compassion. And we are continuing to grow closer to Him every single day as we spread His good news to those around the world who need to hear it. Praise God for His blessings. And praise God for the good and the bad. If the world is listening, if the world is watching, we must give good account and we let the Holy Spirit do the rest. Thanks for listening and we'll see you again next time.