How might we navigate this time as a Christian community?

The articles in this little series have engaged with just a few of the questions surrounding the issue of trusting God, and there are many more. Life is sometimes seemingly unbearably painful and confusing, and each different situation brings up new questions which need to be addressed, raised up to God and considered in the light of his promises.

Community and lament

Meanwhile, these questions do not go away by us shoving them under the carpet and trudging on through the valley; looking rosy on the outside whilst fuming on the inside. As we’ve seen in Acts 17:22-34, God reveals himself through his word and through his world. Another big way that God shows his love and faithfulness is through other human beings, and this becomes particularly important when we’re struggling. It can be tempting to pull back and isolate ourselves, but in actuality, we need to be doing the opposite. Honest conversations, challenge and lament as a community are pivotally important in a broken world.

Let’s get practical

So as we head back to uni, let’s get stuck into our CUs and churches. Let’s take the time to go for coffee with a Christian friend and/or mentor, make a meal or go for a walk. And when we do, let’s speak honestly and listen to one another, so that we might lament and rejoice together in the ups and downs of life.

As we head back into our lectures and seminars (online, in person, or some hybrid), let’s remember that our worldview and our trust of our Creator are just as worthy of a hearing as the secular worldview. Our foundations are firm and will stand up to questioning. The answers are not easy, but they are there. Let’s encourage and affirm one another in this.

Let’s determinedly continue to encourage one another of God’s faithfulness. Both communally and as individuals, let’s actively seek to remember and be thankful for the ways that God has worked in our lives in the past, and of the ways that he promises to work in the present and future.

And crucially, let’s not neglect to sandwich our days with the hope and truth of a world loved by God our Father and redeemed through Jesus Christ. Let’s be realistic about how we do this; even if its just saying the Lord’s prayer or reading one Bible verse as we lie in bed in the morning and before we go to sleep at night. God wants us to rest in him and what he has done for us. That should not be a chore, but a privilege.

Perseverance

Whether it be coronavirus or the next trial, God tells us that this race will require perseverance. Time and again life will buffet us, and the questions will rise, and our trust will be challenged. All the while, however, this infinite God - ‘who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us’ - stands True, firm, strong and everlasting.

Let’s pray Ephesians 3:14-21 together, as we commit to trusting God this academic year:

’14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’