We’ve been quarantined for about six weeks now. How have you spent your time? Hopefully you have a sense of accomplishment for projects completed, creativity reignited, and priorities reestablished. Or perhaps, like me, the successes touted on social media don’t necessarily reflect your reality.
Knowing that over 50,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 is sobering and reminds us of our fragile mortality. For me, this fact combined with too much time alone with my thoughts has led to a lot of introspection. Granted, I had been working through some things prior to the pandemic, but being isolated seems to have intensified my self-evaluation. I don’t know about you, but the highlight reel of my life usually consists of glaring errors and the criticism of others. I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but have a desire to be vulnerable in order to connect with others who might be struggling.
How do you “set your mind on things above” (Colossians 3:2) when your ever-present reality seems to be stuck in a downward spiral of self-condemnation? As I continue reading Colossians 3:3, I find clarification: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” No matter what my past failures or current circumstances may be, nothing can alter the truth that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) And verse 21 of that chapter is what I consider to be one of the most concise explanations of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
And therein lies the answer to this seemingly overpowering sense of failure: I am the righteousness of God in Christ - God took my sins and shortcomings and nailed them to the cross! And so, if you’re feeling bogged down during this pandemic, I encourage you to “forget what lies behind and reach forward to what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14) God is for us!
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? NO ONE. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:31-35; 37)
