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My Redeemer Lives


          I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. (Job 19:25)

          Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.(II Corinthians 5:6-10)

            If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; (Philippians 1:22-23)

          This was the verse waiting for me when I opened the website that I use for my Bible. We’ll come back to Psalm 139 tomorrow, probably.
           This is something that’s missing in my response to the COVID-19 crisis: faith. Oh, I don’t mean there’s no faith at work in my life. I also don’t want to suggest that we should be throwing caution to the wind and ignoring government restrictions meant to keep us safe. No, what I mean is that the reality of any crisis, even if its effects on us are minimal, tends to be to draw our focus down to the crisis.
          Someone on social media asked if I would forego a needed ventilator if both I (hypothetically having refused to wear a mask) and someone who had taken precautions both needed one and only one was available. Putting aside the questions of whether we would be competent at that point to make such a decision, what should the answer of a Christian be to that? This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked such a question. An atheist once asked me if, if he gave me poison, I would drink it.
           First and foremost, the answer should depend on what God tells you to do. We don’t know what that will be. However, in the absence of any clear direction, the answer it seems necessary to give to the poison question is “If you had the authority to require me to do so, yes.” The answer to the ventilator question, again assuming one is competent to refuse it, would seem to be to refuse it if there is a true dilemma (one mask, two people who need it.) The reason behind both is the sort of confidence expressed by Job and by Paul. We know that our Redeemer lives. We know that because He lives, we will live, even if we die. If we die, we will be with Him, which is far better for us. If we live, it will also be good because we will have the opportunity to do more good for others.
          What this means is that – once again – the answer is to turn toward God, not with terrified whimpering about protecting our lives, but with a celebration that neither death nor this life is our master. As some have said, “This world is not our home” and so leaving it means that our battles are over, and we finally get to see the home our souls have longed for.
           Now – please rejoice with me, but don’t use this attitude to bludgeon others.

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