Life on the Pasture

I was not surprised (yet was very disappointed… perhaps even uttering the word “insane”) to hear this afternoon that Governor Evers is continuing the “Safer at Home” order until Tuesday, May 26 (the day after Memorial Day). Schools will complete the school year online. Worship services will continue online. Large family gatherings will continue online. Sometimes it seems as if the whole world is going online.

Obviously, all the ins and outs of the COVID-19 virus are not known. We should continue to be cautious lest we are asymptomatic carriers of the virus. We mourn and grieve for those who have succumbed to the disease and their families. We are extremely thankful that the projected number of deaths is much lower than originally estimated. 

Yet even if COVID-19 would completely go away, the daily death rate continues. Cancer patients, heart patients, people going through dialysis, those living with chronic pain and other ailments continue to suffer and die. As do victims of accidents and senseless murders. Families and friends grieve, now without even having the comfort of gathering for a funeral with more than ten people. Besides that, there are those who now have had surgeries postponed until the COVID-19 crisis is over, having to live in pain until who knows when.

I would like you to try to put yourself in the position of those people whose stories aren’t making the news but are in the midst of suffering. When the entire world seems to be dominated by only one event, it is easy to feel abandoned in the midst of your suffering. You’re not a part of the story in a day in age in which people love being in the story.

Do you recall the account in John 4 about Jesus getting in a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well in the middle of the day? Jesus made clear to her that He knew all about the fact that she had been married five times and the man she was living with wasn’t even her husband. But Jesus came not to leave the woman in her misery by pouring on the judgment. He came to bring her out of her misery by revealing Himself as the promised Messiah who had come to save her.

When the disciples arrived, they were surprised to see Jesus talking with the woman. But that’s how Jesus works. He does not have a “one size fits all” approach, but knows our individual needs and concerns, hurts and fears. As David says in Psalm 139:1-3, “You have searched me, LORD, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.” 

And so we come to Him, assured that we are never alone, for He knows us and how best to deal with us in love, not because He has to, but because He wants to.

– Pastor Schmidt

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash