Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4: 4-7
Some news sites seem almost thrilled at the prospect of the Ukraine-Russia conflict getting worse; every day now there are headlines online about ‘World War 3.’ I am tempted to think they almost want it to happen.
As a journalist who has written about the effects of the conflict, I am very aware of the issues involved and I don’t deny the seriousness of the current situation. But I also think we need to be careful of the narratives we allow to dictate the course of our lives, particularly self-fulfiling prophecies. At the moment the stories pull in a certain way: USA President Biden has given permission to Ukraine to use long distance missiles. Incoming President Trump promises to end the war but keeps his hand hidden. Russian President Putin fumes and threatens and orders ongoing attacks. Ukrainian President Zelensky is in the middle of it all, trying to get his country to survive.
And so it goes on… but when I look back to years not so long ago, I remember the hard work of peace stalwarts such as the late South African President Nelson Mandela, or further back, Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement of the USA. I am not making a political statement at all but surely there’s something of what such contemporary men (and there are others too) said about the importance of peace that needs to be remembered. Killing only leads to more killing. It also causes trauma in the lives of ordinary people of whatever nationality, especially children. I don’t mean not taking a stand for what is right, but rather think through if there are other ways to deal with opponents. Situations at boiling point need cool heads to find remedies. People’s lives literally depend on it.
For Christians, we are compelled to remember what the Lord said about times of turmoil. This is a question that I have been pondering for a very, very long time. It’s really a sermon or message that has been bubbling in my heart and I have been exploring it. Simply this: when the Bible says: “Do not be anxious about anything,” was that a suggestion, or was it a command?
Your answer to that really does matter.
In any case, when I look back at the challenges in my own life – even this past year surviving a brain bleed which rendered me near-unconscious for 36 hours, avoiding a different type of stroke, being told a neck artery was clear of issues after receiving prayer – I can only say that the Lord often likes to make situations a lot more impossible before He acts. And it’s both wonderful and almost scary because God is so very real.
Elijah had to pour water many times on the altar before fire from heaven set it alight; Giden had to cut his army down to a ridiculously small number before winning the battle against the Midianites; Lazarus had to die before being raised to life by Jesus, who literally waited a couple of days for his friend to pass away before visiting the tomb and calling him back to life.
The larger picture of events belongs to God. We are just called to trust Him and obey.
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