We will all get through this together! Remember when people used to say that? Especially our leaders? “This”, of course, in the year 2020 is COVID. I think history has already proven that statement to be false. It’s likely that 47% of the people in the U.S. still believe it. But anyone who has even a bit of a hold on reality knows it’s just not true.
But was the statement, earlier in the year, one of ignorance, wishful thinking, or just a pack of lies? Anyone who paid any attention at all to Hong Kong, Japan, or any number of European countries knows – it was a pack of lies. It was obvious, very early one, that we were most certainly not going al all get through this together!
We will
all
get through this together!
We will all get through this together!
Yeah – that’s what many people used to say. One in particular said there was going to be a miracle, and it would just go away. Not true. So not true.
As the count of sick people mounted, the refrain was repeated. As the count of dead people mounted, the refrain continued. Over and over and over …
As I write this, the U.S. is closing in on 19,500,000 cases and 350,000 deaths. That’s 19.5 million cases and 350 thousand deaths.
And the world is closing in on 81,000,000 cases and 1,800,000 deaths. That’s 81 million cases and 1.8 million deaths.
And the count of sick and dead people continues to mount. Not only that, but the experts who said we would all get through this together are now saying it’s going to get much worse before it starts to get better.
We will not all get through something else together either!
But, you know what? COVID’s not the worst thing we won’t all get through together. Not even close. But we aren’t really told so much about that “other” thing either. Which shouldn’t be surprising at all.
Who’s not telling the whole story?
The person with the loudest voice telling us that COVID’s nothing to worry about is, of course, the President. Donald Trump. Who doesn’t seem to even notice the virus. But he’s not the one I’m talking about.
Surprised? No, the one I’m talking about isn’t really one person. It’s a group of people. Christians. And especially, for whatever reason, evangelical Christians. Their support for the President, as the numbers of sick, jobless, homeless, and dead people continue to rise, the support doesn’t seem to fade at all.
I find that shocking. Disappointing. Wrong.
What else won’t we all get through together?
Do you know what else we’re aren’t fully told about by too many Christians? Something that we will not all get through together? It’s life. This life. We are not all going to Heaven!
So many preachers talk about God being our friend. That He loves us. It’s like the Beatle’s song, all you need is love, is in the Bible. That just so not true.
All we need is Love. Not love – but Love.
You know – as in:
God’s Love and Ours
1Jn 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1Jn 4:13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Pay close attention to that passage, Read it again, and consider the way we live in this time of COVID sickness and death. In this time where people lose jobs and homes because of jobs lost due to the effects of COVID. As we live through a government that doesn’t care about people. A government that’s more concerned with large corporations and the stock market. And as we have so many Christian Pastors insisting the people in their church have a constitutional right to gather together and worship God. Yes – please – read the passage again and ask yourself just how much love we, as Christians, show to each other and to the rest of the world in these days of COVID.
Tell me, do you still think we will all get through this together? Will we all get through COVID together? And will we all get through this life together? Are we all demonstrating our love for God and for each other?
Are you sure we will all get through this together?
If you said yes, we’ll all get through this together, let me remind you of something Jesus said.
The Sheep and the Goats
Mt 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Mt 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Mt 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
Mt 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Mt 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
Mt 25:44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
Mt 25:45 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
Mt 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
That was one of the times when Jesus let us know that some, even many, self-proclaimed followers of Christ are not following Him at all.
Conclusion – We will not all get through this together!
At a time when life is so cheap, it’s not surprising that we think we’re good enough to get into Heaven without doing anything.
And yes, too many of us think life is very cheap.
The right to go to dinner outweighs someone’s health. Even their life, if they happen to die from COVID.
The right to healthcare means we can ignore all the things that will help protect us. Therefore, anyone working in a hospital just needs to suck it up and take care of us. If they get sick, it’s the job they wanted. If they die, again, it’s the job they wanted. My right to do stupid things is more important than their right to continue living.
If someone has a heart attack and can’t get a bed in a hospital, well, they picked a bad time to have that heart attack. I have my rights too. If I want to go to a party and have a good time, and happen to get COVID, well, they can just wait in line.
And old people? Well, they’re gonna die soon anyway. Let them die now and reduce the excess population. Shades of Scrooge in the Christmas Carol.
Yes – life is indeed incredibly cheap to many of us. Not just the ones who do and say the things above, But also to those Christians who look at Trump as the greatest President ever.
Life is also cheap to those who think they must meet in church, in person, with no restrictions, so they can worship God. But hey. There are 169 hours in a week. thinking back to that passage about God’s love and ours, do you really think we’ve shown God’s love by spending one-half of one of those 168 hours singing? And then we spend the other 167.5 hours acting like we do?
I think that’s goat territory. It certainly doesn’t seem loving. And I think we, Christians, need to be told that. Far better to find out now than at the end of our life.
Look at it this way. All Americans think the downing of the World Trade Center buildings was horrific. That the people responsible were evil. However, in spite of that, we seem to be numb to the deaths from COVID. Compare the ~2,600 people who died from the tower tragedy to the over 3,000 people who have died every day for most of the month of December. Not just one day, but nearly every day!
And that’s just in the U.S. World-wide, it’s over 10,000 every single day in December.
All told, as of today, the world death toll from COVID is equivalent to 692 world trade center tragedies. And the numbers are still going up! And we still argue over whether or not we should take common-sense care to prevent further spreading.
Just how evil does that make us?
Still think we’re good people and we will all get through this together?
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