Elijah, exhausted after fleeing the evil Jezebel, laid in a cave when the Lord came and spoke to him. Elijah was asked to stand and wait for the Lord to pass by. First, a great wind, like a tornado, tore the mountains and broke the rocks into pieces, but “the Lord was not in the wind.” Next, an earthquake, but “the Lord was not in the earthquake.” After the earthquake a fire, “but the Lord was not in the fire.”
Finally, came the sound of a low whisper. Some interpret these words not as meaning a whisper, but rather referring to silence. This was the Lord speaking, not in lightning or thunder, but in the quiet. Elijah heard and understood (1 Kings 19).
I wonder, if in this moment, the Lord is communicating through the relentless spread of a coronavirus? In our modern world of flash and clanging and spin and technology and pride, wouldn’t it be like the Lord to confront us with something so basic?
A virus, the simplest of biological organisms, confounding epidemiologists and humbling world leaders, has brought our lives to a standstill. A global pandemic, creating the necessary conditions to hear the Lord, surrounds us.
As we face a nagging sense of desperation, as our fears keep us awake at night, as we worry about a pathogen that we cannot stop from spreading, could it be that God is whispering to us in our beds?
As we’ve canceled our trip to Disney, and we are afraid to pass in the park, and we’ve gone grocery shopping only to experience empty shelves for the first time in our lives, might the Lord be murmuring to us in our organic produce aisles?
When a disease haunts our streets, one that we cannot pop a pill for or a receive a shot to stop, when we are agitated by headlines day after day, when social media voices bore endlessly into our psyches, might God be gently upending our tidy suburbs?
CS Lewis wrote: “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
In this viral situation, fear is an amplifier. God looks for you and I to walk out our front door and wait for Him. Allow the quiet of these days, and the fears of your heart, to give you space to truly listen for the Lord.
One final thought. We’re commanded to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And, love your neighbor as yourself.” These are good days to practice both.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
