The conditions necessary for this planet to sustain human life are very specific: light, food, water, and temperature. Likewise, the maintenance of life itself within each human organism also has very specific food, water, and temperature requirements.

The world in which each of us lives is so complex and specific as to its requirements for the maintenance of life, that it is hard to imagine it coming into being without a Creator. As history has shown, the fragility of life is so specific, that only a sovereign God can maintain it. A few degrees warmer or cooler on this earth, and life as we know it would cease to exist. A few degrees warmer or cooler in body temperature would mean physical death.

Life didn’t get fragile with the advent of COVID-19 in 2020, it always has been. Life was just as fragile with the discovery of H1N1 (the swine flu) in 2009. The limit of each mortal life is tested by all types of perils: the accidents on Interstate 20, gun violence and diseases of all types. Every threat to our existence is driven by one emotion: fear.

Fear creates a world that is built on sheer chance, where every person is at the mercy of powers beyond their control. Self-preservation (what’s best for me), at the cost of the community (what’s best for us all), becomes the norm.

Fear is ultimately irrational. It is not consistent with a world created and sustained under the loving oversight of the Creator. The people of God are people of faith. We believe. We believe there is a Creator who sustains His creation and lovingly provides for it. We believe that this Creator is good.

We believe that He is Sovereign, over all happenings; those we judge as being good, as well as those we believe are not so good. We believe that this good Creator will ultimately bring good out of every occurrence, according to His plan. These are the tenets of an unwavering faith that should sustain believers in uncertain times.

Though the conditions necessary to sustain life, both collectively and individually, are narrow and specific, they are governed by a loving God who is good. His goodness is evidenced in many ways, but more specifically by what He has already done. He has brought this nation, this community, and your tribe and family through many events that threatened our collective and individual existences. 

Believers should not succumb to irrationality. After we have taken every precaution in the current crisis, we should submit to the sovereign will of the One who has already been so gracious. He has already proven that He is good, and He is well able to preserve life — as he sees fit.

 

Rev. R.D. Bernard is pastor of King Solomon Baptist Church on Oak Ridge Road.