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‘Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You, (Jeremiah 32:17)
          In the story I’m working on, there are some people who have vowed to die rather than to submit. They continue to say this after meeting Estaen and hearing about his dernai, but they find themselves unable to overcome the temptation to look to them for help when things aren’t going the way they want. In fact, they repeatedly ask Estaen why he and his dernai won’t help out. At one point, Zheann lists times when the dernai could have helped, but didn’t.
          Her complaints should sound familiar. The stereotypical response to anything bad that happens is “where was God?” or “Why did God allow this to happen?” If nothing is too difficult for God, why doesn’t he stop the bad things from happening? Why did He allow COVID-19 to develop and why doesn’t He make it go away? Is today’s verse a lie?
          Not surprisingly, the answer is “no.” Today’s verse tells the truth. It is we who lie. Some say that if God doesn’t make all the bad things go away, He either can’t be omnipotent, or He can’t be good. That’s not true. One way that God can be both omnipotent and good while allowing what we call bad is if we are wrong about it being bad. COVID-19 is an example of this. It is declared “evil” because people are made uncomfortable (sick) and because people die. I’m not saying that death is a good thing that we should all pursue at our earliest convenience, and I’m not saying that those people who decide to kill others aren’t doing something wrong, but neither can I say that death itself is the horrible thing that so many seem to believe. We tend to think that physical death is evil, but that doesn’t mean we’re right.
          So, for a few moments, what good has COVID-19 wrought in your life? Has it improved your relationship with God? With the people you’re closest to? With yourself? Has it made you more aware of things in your life you need to address? Have you started addressing any of them? Have you read any books that influenced your thinking? Have you made changes to your life or habits? Have you taken any steps at all to find good in life as it is now? If you haven’t, could it be that it is not God who is evil in allowing the coronavirus, but you who are evil for not working for what is good?

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