As Pastor John Piper waited for cancer surgery, he wrote a short booklet in 2011 titled; “Don’t Waste your Cancer”. He encouraged us to see everything that God allowed in our lives, even the emotional devastation of a cancer diagnosis, and the uncertainty of the outcome of surgery, as an opportunity to glorify God.

We will always have tragedy, illness, heartache, and difficulty in this life because we live in a fallen and broken world. That brokenness seems to be increasing more and more these days. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep from just giving up, letting the darkness overtake us, rob our joy, and reorient our focus to the crisis. I think that’s what Piper was talking about when he says, “don’t waste your cancer”. I don’t have cancer. I’m thankful for the health I enjoy. I ask myself; what opportunities to glorify God am I wasting by focusing on the crisis rather than the opportunity?

Perhaps the question should be, how am I not wasting the COVID pandemic? We’ve had months of pandemic lockdowns, restrictions in gathering as families, as churches, and as friends. We’ve grieved with those who’ve suffered loss. In many ways, we have become much more fixated on social media. News streams carry almost non-stop COVID analysis, diagnosis, views, and predictions. We’ve become focused on the crisis and in many ways, we’ve overlooked the opportunities.

So how do we not waste COVID? How do we focus on the opportunities rather than the crisis? Let me suggest three activities that might help.

First, do all you can to connect with other people. Recognize that there are no Supermen or Superwomen. We are all broken people, saved by grace through faith, and we need one another. COVID has revealed more than ever how our church buildings, our programs, and our online Livestream activities, as good as they are, all fade away in comparison to connecting relationally with one another. We are the body of Christ. As one author put it; “Being created in the image of God means in part, that we have been pre-wired by God to hunger for community”. That hunger is only satisfied when we connect in real community, in authentic relationships with others, not just in gathering on Sunday mornings.

Second, do all you can to serve others in their time of need. The words of Jesus push against our selfishness and our sense of entitlement. Jesus gives us a different perspective; whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45). I’ve always been moved by an old photograph from the Vietnam war. It shows a wounded marine, covered in mud, bleeding, in need of medical attention himself, bending down to lift up another wounded marine in greater need than himself. Many people are hurting, anxious and fearful. Let us do all we can to be the face and hands of Jesus to others.

Third, do all you can to glorify God. The revealer of our faith is never the mountaintop. It is always the deep dark valley, the desert, the times where all our outward image and self-coping mechanisms are stripped away and we are left with just one thing - faith, our faith that God is sovereign, and that He is enough. The Psalms are a great reminder of this. David often struggled. Self-doubt, threats, and crisis surrounded him. Yet in Psalm 13 he writes these words in response to crisis, “But I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:5-6). Can we do that? Can we see beyond the crisis, and recognize the sovereignty of God, and rejoice, praise, sing, glorify God despite the circumstances?

Crisis is never easy. COVID has not been easy. Reactions, emotions, can at times overwhelm. Take heart, the opportunities are greater than the crisis because of Him who loves us, who called us and who wants to use us as His chosen vessels to make His name known among all peoples.  

Looking for the opportunities!

Rev. Bill Allan
AGC President