I bumped into a friend the other day who told me, with a look of panic in her eyes, that her husband was being transferred and they would be moving to one of the most dangerous cities in Africa.
Her kids go to a wonderful Christian school. She lives in a quiet, safe neighbourhood close to many Christian families from her church. She locks her doors at night but it doesn’t cross her mind that someone might try to burgle her house. In fact, in the few years she’s been living in her neighbourhood, the most frightening thing she witnessed was an old man prancing around in women’s underwear!
Her new home will most likely be in a security-guard-patrolled housing community, enclosed by high walls topped with razor wire and electric fencing, the house’s interior walls studded with panic buttons that summons an armed response team in a matter of minutes, despite which you still don’t feel safe!
I was reminded of a few of the many tragedies that have happened recently in supposedly ‘safe’ countries, unlike the one my friend is about to move to: the Manchester bombing, the numerous London and Paris attacks, the Grenfell Tower fire, the forest fire in Portugal… The fire in Grenfell Tower was one that has particularly marked me. Maybe it was because some people had thrown their children out of the building trying to save them. I tried to imagine what it would be like, even as a Christian, to be in such a situation.
The fact is that no one knows when, or how, they are going to die. It can happen anywhere, at any time. Just recently the footballer Cheick Tiote collapsed and died of a heart attack during a training session. He was young, incredibly fit, and very wealthy…
I’m reminded of the scripture: “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)
In the Harvest America Revival event in Arizona this month, Greg Laurie shared the same sentiments with the thousands of people gathered: “The clock is ticking, and before you know it, life could end. How do you know you’re going to live to be an old man or an old woman? It’s not guaranteed.”
The one thing we need to be sure of in this life, is that we when we do eventually die, we are going to spend eternity with Jesus. If we have this assurance, then now is not the time to cower in fear. It’s the time to bring a message of hope and to share the love of Jesus with people who are suffering. It’s time to act boldly, knowing that the Lord has said: “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. Let’s fear God, and He will take care of the rest.
Louise Carter
