COVID-19 Series: #2—Pain is God’s megaphone

19 Pastoral Thoughts On COVID-19

Megaphone icon (vector PSD) from 365psd.com

“Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4–5).

Once we understand that God has a hand in all global disasters, such as the spread of the coronavirus, we can only conclude that the infinite designer of the universe must have a reason for causing human suffering to occur at such unusually high levels.

While others think that God has nothing to do with human suffering, we can also make the mistake of thinking that those who suffer from such calamities are the ones God is punishing. That was the error Jesus was correcting in the quote above. The justice of God that will separate sinners from saints will occur on his final judgement. It is yet to be!

God allows calamities to occur at such high levels in order to call our attention to himself so that we re-examine our relationship with him. C S Lewis wrote, “[Pain is God’s] megaphone to rouse a deaf world…. It gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment… It plants the flag of truth within the fortress of the rebel soul.”

Jesus told his hearers that such calamities were an opportunity for them to seriously consider God’s call to repentance before death also catches up with them. It is the same with us today during this global crisis. Are there areas in your life in which God has been speaking to you about your need to repent but you have been stubborn? If so, do not waste your COVID-19 experience. Ensure that you repent before it is too late.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart today,

Try me, O Saviour, know my thoughts, I pray;

See if there be some wicked way in me;

Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.”

—James Edwin Orr (1912–1987)