It’s almost been a month. I miss life as it used to be. The silence has become deafening, the gravity of loss overwhelming, and the solitude overbearing. Since the global pandemic, I mourn because, for a lot of people, their lives have not gone as planned. Of course, I am grateful for the little things like the clearer skies or more time with family, but I also mourn.

• For recent graduates who are not able to graduate in person and secure internships.

• For the 1.2 million in Indonesia and millions worldwide who became unemployed.

• For the business owners who have to close their long-held businesses.

• For the family in lockdown that suffers increased stress and perhaps violence.

• For those who have lost loved ones due to the virus.

Do you believe God is in control and is good through it all? I still do. I hope you will too. I hope you will seek Him in your confusion, frustration, and anxieties. I find encouragement that He has been faithful and good in redeeming good out of the bad, God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Though I hate being chained at home, I find strength in the story of Corrie Ten Boom, the survivor of the Holocaust. Towards the end of her life, she was bedridden in her room, sick. She filled most of her days not with complaints but through silent intercession for people God brought to mind. She wrote letters, books, and prayed during those five silent years of imprisonment in her bedroom. In those years, God proved Himself to be enough for her. God also used those faithful years she sought the Lord’s face from her bedroom to bless multiple around the nation. Including me, through her writings.

You and I can trust that God is enough, for He has hem us in—behind and before (Ps.139:5) and knows just what we need. It’s not the Netflix that will soothe the empty soul, nor the pep-talk that will encourage the weary heart. For, as the Psalmist proclaimed,

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your Presence? If I go up the heavens, you are there; If I make my bed in the depths, You are there (v.7)”

And that..

“You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways (v.3)”

I pray that in the midst of the seemingly overwhelming needs of your own and others, you can look at Jesus and find His comfort. No place you go, you go alone. Anywhere with Him is your home.

Through all this world of whelming mist,

Still let me look to Thee, Weary I am — O give me strength

And leave me not to faint; O Let my trembling should beg still,

And trust Thy wise,

Thy holy will! I cannot, Lord, Thy purpose see.

Yet all is well since ruled by Thee.

May this be a time when beauty and purpose are born. A time when creativity is awakened, faith is revived, passions are discovered. A time when we collectively lean to our calling to contribute to the flourishing of humankind and come out on the other side to a better world.

Lord would you come near, even in days where it’s lonely and my thoughts overwhelm me. Remind me I never walk alone, you’re with me through it all. Through broken hearts and broken bones, You have always held me close. I desire to cross the sea Lord, any day. But you call me to see the cross. To stay still and seek Your face. Perhaps the sanctifying period you’re calling me to at the moment is to stay learn to serve those around me better. Jesus, Thy purpose I trust. Amen.