“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me;”

WOW, the words of the Psalmist were written for times like these! There are so many who are just not sure where their future is in these difficult times. Covid-19 has humbled many folks, because we haven’t seen anything like this in our lifetime, and no doubt things will never return to normal.

As I write this I learn that some crazy church folks gathered for worship and 100 who gathered have already tested positive for the virus, and no doubt by the time this appears in the paper the number will climb.

Many of us have known folks who have been affected by the virus, and a fellow I knew pretty well was the first Kansas death from the virus. Healthy, slim, no health risks, but early on had respiratory distress, went to an urgent care center in Johnson County and they just sent him back home ... told him to drink a lot. He went again ... sent home. He got so bad they called an ambulance, sent him to the hospital ... and he died four days later and the family couldn’t even be with him!

That story has been repeated tens of thousands of times across the country and hundreds of thousands of times around the world!

The virus has not just affected our health, but it has disrupted the world’s economy, and folks are now willing to put others at risk just to get things going again and get a paycheck in their pocket. Suicides are skyrocketing, mothers have had it with homeschooling, graduations have become victim of the times, and I have never gone through a grocery store so fast in my life as I have the past two months.

We are troubled people in troubled times. We are demanding freedom, we are rebelling against government, and tragically, at every level a virus governed by science, has been turned into a political issue that has focused us on our demand for personal freedom.

Where is there hope in our lives? ... where is there hope in America? ... what is the “new” that will never allow us to return to the old normal again?

Where is there hope in the midst of these troubling times? The Psalmist gives us a hint from his own life experience, and we could learn from him. Quoting scripture and demanding we go back to “church” are just fantasies that some people think will help them once again reconnect with God and their special group they call their church. But this is a much deeper issue that goes to the core of our being.

When we are connected with God, we can walk through the toughest times and know the peace and hope that comes from a deep faith. Even in the toughest or darkest times we feel the presence of God that leads us through troubled waters, even in the midst of death.

Several decades after Jesus lived on earth, Roman leaders were struggling to save their nation, and determined that these followers of Jesus were the root of their struggles and so it was ordered that all followers of Jesus should be killed. Over 1,000,000 followers of Jesus were killed, and it was in the midst of this time of Roman troops going from town to town and killing every believer, that John wrote the book of Revelation as a way of encouraging believers. He told them that if they remained faithful, it would give them hope.

There are all kinds of crazy thoughts that have spread through the Church about Revelation, but this image of hope is a real encouragement among those who are just not sure what tomorrow holds, and even led to depression and despair. We cannot lose focus, but must remain close to God that God can give us the strength to get through these times ... not to return to “normal”, but to have the grounding that will give us the strength for the new tomorrows of our lives.

Things will never be what they were ... that, I am sure ... but if we allow God to give us the hope God wants us to have, we will be ready to move into a new reality — a reality that may well bring us to a newness we have not even thought of yet.

Live hope and be an agent of God’s hope in your world today!

Pastor’s Podium

The Pastor’s Podium column is offered each week by a different pastor or lay person representing an Ellsworth County church.

The week’s columnist is Jim Morford, retired pastor.