Don't Quit in a Pandemic

It was a Friday night in the ’60’s and Charles Wesley was reading Matthew Henry’s relatively new commentary series (published in 1710) on Leviticus. He was at Leviticus 8:35 “Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not: for so I am commanded” (KJV). Henry had commented: “We shall everyone of us have a charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify, an immortal soul to provide for, our generation to serve, and it must be our daily care to keep this charge, for it is the charge of the Lord and Master, who will shortly call us to an account about it, and it is our utmost peril if we neglect it.” It does take much to see the lyrics that the famous song writer crafted into a favorite of mine: 

“A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify,

a never-dying soul to save, and fit it for the sky.

“To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill;

O may it all my powers engage to do my Master’s will.

To serve the present age, 

my calling to fulfill, 

O may it all my pow'rs engage 

to do my Master's will! ”

I was thinking about you today and what you’ve done the last 10-12 weeks. You’ve agonized over if you should continue to meet face-to-face and the danger and implications of that,  you’ve fought depression from being away from your Family,  you’ve sought to find products from hand-sanitizer to Communion supplies, you’ve struggled to figure out the technology to be online, you’ve agonized over preaching to a camera, you’re not been able to be with those who have suffered loss, who’ve been in the hospitals, you’ve tried to keep a congregation together when they are apart, you’ve had to do ministry in a time and manner in which none of us were trained, you’ve had to carry the whole service with only a minuscule of help from a couple of people, you’ve wondered who is an expert and who is just using this for their own purposes, you’ve been troubled over when and how to come back.  

In short you have striven to do the Master’s will and “serve this present age.” This age that has not been seen before. Right now, we just want to say “thank you” and hang in there. Don’t quit in a pandemic!!