I am currently at gate 10 of the Sonny Bono Airport in Palm Springs. As the new year turns tonight I will be somewhere over middle America, flying from the west coast to the east coast. There has been a dust storm in the desert, so they have promised us a bumpy ride. Omicron dominates the news cycle, with all the left-wing news outlets emphasizing how much more transmissible the variant is, and all the right-wing news outlets emphasizing how much less severe the symptoms are. Both are true, but very few people seem to be able to hold both thoughts in their head at the same time… flying blindly into 2022 it is painfully obvious that most of us are not going to get our life back anytime soon. When the clock strikes midnight we will be singing “Auld Lang Syne” nervously, remembering how we assumed 2021 would be better than 2020, and that didn’t exactly pan out. The phrase means “times long past,” and it feels like anything before March 2020 was a lifetime ago. Back then I was having a grand time travelling the world, building an outreach program at the college where I teach, speaking, and leading ministry trips. Up until that point my world had always been expanding. Then suddenly it contracted in every way, and “two weeks to flatten the curve” became “two year to flatten our souls.” Overnight, everything that I was good at became socially unacceptable in some parts, and downright illegal in others. When you runs an outreach program and you are restricted from going out and reaching out, that is pretty much a death knell to fulfilling your mission in any kind of meaningful way. I definitely went through the stages of grief as I watched everything shrink and decrease instead of grow and increase. And it hasn’t stopped. There have just been brief pauses between waves. The fact that Omicron is more contagious and less severe than previous variants may actually be a good thing. This may signal that we are moving from pandemic to endemic. Get it. Get over it. Get on with it.
Yale sociologist and director of the Human Nature Lab, Nick Christakis, says that Covid has three phases: 1) Immediate 2)Intermediate 3)Post. He thinks we are just moving into phase 2. He likens the pandemic to a tsunami and says that 2022 will be the after effects, where the waves recede and we look around to assess the damage and begin the long, hard job of cleaning up. He predicts that we will not really come out of the crisis until 2024, and that we will experience long-term negative fallout in jobs, mental health, relationships, and a host of other areas. Just like previous generations who have lived through plagues, war, or the great depression… there may be psychological scars that may last a lifetime. So if you feel more tired and like everything is hitting you harder right now, it probably is. This is the winter of our discontent. You thought you were running a 5K, and then it turned into a marathon, and you just found out it is an ironman.
One of the intangibles that has changed dramatically over these two years is the “ethosphere.” The ethosphere is made up of the shared attitudes, ethics, and behaviour a society has surrounding it. It was changing anyway, but the pandemic has accelerated this change. Unlike other crisis’ we have faced, we seem to be turning away from God instead of to God. It is no accident that the two companies that have massively influenced pop culture and social media in the last fifty years are both named Apple. We have chosen the tree of our own knowledge over the tree of God’s wisdom, and with very dire results. We tend to ignore God when things are going our way, and blame Him when things are going wrong. Let’s remember that Covid began in one of two ways: 1) People deciding to eat things God has instructed us not to eat or 2) People playing God in a lab and messing with things that shouldn’t be messed with. Either way, let’s not blame God for the mess we have created. Perhaps we should get rid of the New Year’s resolution and replace it with the New Year’s repentance. One assumes we can fix whatever is broken on our own. The other assumes that we need an intelligence and power greater than our own.
While we may look back on the way things use to be, there is no point in getting stuck in the daze of nostalgia. For the Christian, there is no point in pretending that the ethosphere will go back to being faith-friendly. It won’t. Almost every area of life has been secularized, politicized, sexualized, and racialized. The Christian message will be met with increasing hostility from a culture determined to go it’s own way. So for those who count themselves as part of the Church, it is also time to count the cost of your convictions. Are we willing to preach the gospel when we are the new marginalized, and our attitudes, ethics, and behavior run counter to the culture ? I hope we are willing to say: “ I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…” (Ro. 1:16) The next couple of years will not be easy ones, but they will be clear ones for those who are all in with Jesus. We need to stop praying that the journey will be easier , and start praying that our faith will be stronger. The wide road will get wider and the narrow road will get narrower. Some will deconstruct their way into oblivion, virtue signalling themselves into godhood. And poor gods they will make indeed. Others will humble themselves before the real God, and choose the way that leads to life. This will be a small but distinct group, and will probably be made up of people we weren’t expecting.
So I wish you a “Happy New Year,” even though I am not confident “happy” is the right word. As I board my plane to fly into the darkness and turbulence of 2022, maybe a better word is 2 Thes. 3:16: “ May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in all ways. The Lord be with all of you.”
Insightful and accurate. The Bible clearly teaches that the divide between good and evil will wax greatly as the day approaches. There is no returning to the “good old days”. There is only going forward into what God has prepared for us, before the foundation’s of the world. As I have told everyone over these last two years…….none of this is a surprise to God. In fact, we are right on schedule. There are very hard days ahead, but there will also be great joy and moments of awe and wonder, as we see God’s ultimate plan start to take form. The scriptures talk of calamities, violent storms, volcanoes, pestilence, plagues, violence, wars and other upsets. But in the midst of it there will be personal and corporate victories. Many will be saved and many more will return from their wanderings. These will not be easy times, but they will be glorious.
Poignant and powerful insights. Your transparent and prophetic voice is a gift to those who have the courage to embrace the spiritual battles ahead as Romans 1:16 is refined in us by the aftermath of this pandemic. We are better and stronger because of the effective stewardship of your influence. Shalom / Salam / Peace - that passes the understanding of our circumstances is a far better word than "happy" indeed. And it probably always has been, even when the prospect of a new year used to be a happy one.