¹God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 46)

Last night after the kids and Pam went to bed, I went online and read up on world news on Google.  I wish I hadn’t.  Italy has 30,000 cases of COVID-19 with 2,500 deaths, Europe is closing its borders, France is in lockdown, Iran is digging mass graves, financial markets are in chaos.  And one of my deepest concerns is for North Korea with its undernourished citizens and barely functioning healthcare system.  No one knows exactly what’s going on there, but it can’t be good.

I’ve been following one of my friends on Facebook.  Several years ago he “de-converted” from the Christian faith and became an atheist.  By his line of reasoning, the existence of disease, suffering, pain and evil is evidence that God doesn’t exist.  Why, he would say, would a good God allow such things to happen?  Therefore, God himself must be evil (or powerless) or else he doesn’t exist at all. And given these two choices, he’s opting for the second one.

I guess I see things the exact opposite.  To me, the fact that we haven’t crashed and burned as a species long before this is evidence of a Creator and the mercies of God.  Humanity is messed up, and we live on a broken planet, with broken systems and broken people, and we have for thousands of years. Everything has been wrecked and shattered by sin, which in turn results in disease, war, famine, selfishness, injustice… and the list goes on and on.  Paul described it well in Romans 8.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time… as we eagerly await for … the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22)

The whole creation is groaning.  The second law of thermodynamics… there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate into a more disordered state… is writ large across the cosmos. Every part of the universe has been impacted by the devastating and disintegrating effect of sin. So, when catastrophe strikes or war erupts or disease breaks out, we can’t blame God or drop it on his doorstep.  We need to own it.  It wasn’t meant to be this way.  God created this world perfect and he placed us in a beautiful garden.  We are the ones who chose to rebel and every generation continues to perpetuate that condition.  If we sow to the wind, should we be surprised when we reap a whirlwind?

Instead of seeing God as in some way responsible for our suffering or derelict for not stopping it, I choose to see his hand of faithfulness towards this planet, in general; and his people, more specifically.

It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13

Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. Psalms 119:90

Without the sustaining grace of God, not one of us would have made it this far and God continues to hold it all together, just because he’s good and patient and kind.  But for those who love him, he becomes “a refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble.” We call that faithfulness.

God is faithful and in these chaotic times he will continue to be faithful. As Christians, he doesn’t exempt us from the effects of our broken world, but he does promise to walk with us every step of the way. Jesus promised to be with us “always, even to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).”  Now, that’s faithfulness.

God will be faithful even if conditions get markedly worse in the very near future

God will be faithful even if our economy never recovers

God will be faithful if my family sustains shortage or deprivation

God will be faithful if the fabric of society shreds

God will be faithful if I or one of my loved ones gets gravely ill

God will be faithful if he calls me to serve others in a way that causes me great personal loss

God will be faithful when he ushers me into his presence, one day when my journey here on earth is complete

God will be faithful, because that’s who He is.

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