There are many perspectives floating, or should I say flying around, these days about all that our country, and the entire world for that matter, is experiencing this pesky year of 2020. At the very beginning of the pandemic, fear of the unknown caused unanswerable questions to run rampant. Then, a little further into the crisis, we moved along with a lot of intentional positivity about the good things this trying and frightening time has taught us all. More time to spend with our loved ones, slowing down and paying attention to what really matters and learning a deeper level of gratitude were all part of the realm of perspectives shared among our fellow humans.

Those positive take-aways help to bring comfort to many, but not to all. So many have suffered devastating loss. So many are still suffering with no end in sight.

What can any of us do to change the way things are heading? Redeem all that’s been lost? How can we secure our future when it seems to be increasingly uncertain? Will there ever be a time when we can say that we feel we are standing on solid ground again?

My own soul has been in a state of unrest. This is not unfamiliar to me as I am one who has always struggled to obtain deep down peace in my heart. I have tried to understand this unsettled soul of mine, but only God can fully understand the workings of my heart.

But with all the examination of my heart, I feel I don’t know my own soul. I don’t even know if there is anything in me that is redeemable by the time the self-diagnosis is complete. To be sure, there is not. The final word of hope is always the same: surrender to God. Every hope, dream, sin, grievance, fear, comfort and plan to His will. The only thing that makes my life redeemable is the blood of Jesus Christ.

Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him. Psalm 62:1

God knows the depths of my heart and, like the song says, “He loves me the same”. Is there even anything close to as lovely as knowing that? Is there any hope that can compare to the salvation and redemption of our souls? A salvation that was bought with the blood of Jesus Christ unto death on a cross to pay the debt our sin accrued? That God could see our weak and sinful hearts and lay His life down to save us still?

Why am I talking about these weighty spiritual issues when the issues of this world are the palpable, felt concern right now? Don’t we need to focus on the problems around us before we can consider eternity?

Truthfully, our future in this life isn’t any less certain than it always has been. It feels like it, it looks like it, but it isn’t. All of the terror of the pandemic, along with the political and social turmoil screaming around us at every turn just causes the uncertainty of this life to become more obvious to us all, even those who have never considered eternity.

When things appear to be quiet, predictable, stable we are tricked into believing or at least lulled into feeling as if tomorrow is guaranteed to be what we imagine it will be. To the contrary, none of us has ever known what tomorrow will hold.

There is a superficial and dangerous comfort to having things always go as planned – the controlled outcomes our earnest efforts dutifully created. Planning and preparing with hard, diligent work and research will indeed yield profitable results. There is wisdom in all of that, but let’s not forget we still are not in control of tomorrow. This kind of security in predictable cause-and-effect outcomes can create peace of mind, but if we’re not careful it can also breed false security.

I don’t think I’m alone in feeling as if the ground beneath us feels less supportive than in past times. But our earthly, man-made foundations have always been untrustworthy.

Now that we are all in a place to recognize with more acute clarity that we have no idea what the future holds here on earth, our eyes are wide open to consider where we can find unshakable hope. The only thing that we can be sure of is our eternity. Please don’t make the mistake of putting off the reality of eternity. Our salvation can never be taken from us, the greatest provision of hope.

If we reject Jesus, we go to eternity without Him. Hell is real, but so is Heaven. We choose. Where will you place your hope, your future, your eternity?

So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. Hebrews 9:28

When peace is nowhere to be found and fear reigns, the final word remains the same: surrender our tomorrows, our eternities to Jesus.

“On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Edward Mote

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12