» I want to ask something of you. It’s simple, but also daunting in this particular moment: don’t quit.
» All of us are weary and worn down by this virus, by the conflict and confusion it has created, by the death-toll. Many of us are discouraged by having passed through the recent bitter and oppressive political season. All of us feel in our bones what has been a grey, wet winter without the beauty of snow. But don’t quit. As Churchill said, “when you’re going through hell, it’s best to keep going.” Keep going.
» The Bible’s exhortations to endurance are telling us the Lord knows walking faithfully in this world is hard. So he says, “come to me all who labor and are heavy laden” (Mt 11:28), “do not let your hearts be troubled” (Jn 14:1), and “those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isa 40:31). The Lord Jesus, wearied by what he faced every day, is our picture of what it means to persevere. “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Heb 12:3). So he is our example, but more importantly he is a presence. He dwells in the place of exhaustion in order to lift the weary, becoming the high priest “who sympathizes with our weaknesses” (Heb 4:15). Find strength in his mercy. Don’t quit.
» Recently I read that mental health during the Coronavirus had slipped for every category in society except one: those who were attending church regularly. I suppose we’re free to spin this however we want. For myself, I would say what sustains my heart in a moment like this one is gathering with you to proclaim together the beauty, character, and power of God — his luminescence — which transcends all the grief and weariness of this present darkness. Nothing can defeat who he is, so as his children we are “dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Cor 6:9ff). Even in the most difficult circumstances we are led by Christ in triumphal procession. Keep going.
» Don’t abandon what we call the “ordinary means of grace,” namely, hearing the word, taking Communion, and praying together as the people of God (Acts 2:42). These are the resources, the sustaining graces we hold in common. We are spiritually at our weakest when we isolate. The enemy is a predator: he kills by isolating then attacking his prey in a vulnerable moment (1 Pet 5:8). Stay connected to one another, keep gathering for worship and prayer (online or in person), write to each other, call each other, pray for each other, depend on each other. And don’t neglect gathering together (Heb 10:25).
» Few understood the call to endurance so well as Peter who faced failings in his own character, the conflicts of ministry, and the prospect of an ugly death. What sustained him was a vision, a promise, of what the Lord held in store for him. So his first letter, filled with encouragement for the weary and heavy laden, ends with the hope he held in his own heart: “after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen.”