“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.“

Patti and I took a week of vacation travel last week.  We went to one of those places where you are seeking to be out of touch for a while.  The weather, the accommodations, the food, the company and the travel to and fro were all great.  But, it was impossible to get out of the “mainstream” because of the news and continuing conversation all around us about Covid-19.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, was concerned and every conversation was dominated by it in some way.  It was impossible to physically. mentally or virtually escape.  And so it is with anything we have going on in our work or our lives that is either bubbling up or we have concerns of it arising and soon boiling over.  I think of companies who have security breaches, a product tampering, a service failure or a problem with an employee(s) that when it surfaces will put them on the defense instead of the control and direction that is preferred.  So, what can we do during these times?  Well, sometimes the best thing to do is to accept that for a time frame it is going to be really difficult and very choppy waters and prepare for the worst.  But, at the same time to balance that with thinking about the future when the rough times have passed.  For instance, on the plane ride back, I started looking at the back half of the month of April and beyond and the exciting things that I can be planning for then. If all I did was think about the next few weeks/month and all of the confusion and turmoil that will (and is already happening) with the changes because of the Corona Virus impact on travel, scheduling, economic ramifications, people, etc. then I’d find myself more than bogged down and maybe even paralyzed in not knowing what to do next.  But, if I positively visualize the future, then things start to get better, even now.

One cannot predict what will come next.  Futurists and fortune tellers like to tell us that they can, but they can’t. The only Truth of the future is the one that God gives us. He asks us for our faith in Him and if we give that wholeheartedly and fully to Him, then we can count on that future to be what He promises.  Maybe what could help us today is to stop for a moment and to positively visualize what it might be like to rest in His presence with Him forever.  He’s got all of this under control and He’s working even now, in this moment, on our behalf to prepare not for the worst, but for the best of all.

Reference: John 14:1-3 (New Living Translation)