Soar Like an Eagle (Despite Covid).

“So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” Psalm 103:5

The Sars-CoV-2 virus is a real thing and should not be taken lightly, just as walking on an icy driveway should not be taken lightly. I am on the other side of the Covid nightmare and it is, to put it quite bluntly, a real hassle. Yes, Covid should be taken seriously just as a bear wandering around your campsite should be taken seriously. The virus has been a good teacher, changing the way many of us think about handwashing and sanitizing and sneezing. It is right and proper to learn from this uninvited stranger. Christian or non, walking with a modicum of wisdom is always a healthy occupation. After all, most people who walk carefully over ice don’t fall down. Treating the Covid virus with respect may not be wisdom born from above but it is certainly a wisdom birthed from good common sense. To the degree it is possible, the Christian, because he lives in this world ought to live prudently. But living prudently is only part of the story for the Christian. The truth is that the Christian (and the Christian alone) is a citizen of two worlds. As such he must keep his eyes on two sets of laws. There is the law of this world, which we have already discussed, and another law that is otherworldly. Living under two governments makes the Christian a very strange and oft misunderstood creature. He is commanded to obey the earthly rulers as we see in Romans chapter 13. But obedience to them falls a distant second to their obedience to the ruler of this other world, a ruler who is the true King of kings and Lord of lords. Sometimes the laws of these two kingdoms collide. After all, the operative principles that guide each of these worlds are quite different. Many Christians have forgotten this. If we were to boil it all down, the central principle governing survival in this world would be the law of prudence. Now prudence is not a bad thing in itself. It looks at the earthly data and makes wise decisions based on what is seen. Prudence has as its goals, health, safety, security and peace. But prudence lacks a heavenly perspective. It is an earthly virtue that functions well in its given sphere but has little value in the world of the unseen. Now it must be said that Christians, like other earthlings, must practice prudence in order to function well. But prudence is not the only law that governs their lives. They must obey another, more important law, the law of the unseen world, the law of the Spirit. In this “other” world the operative principle is faith. This principle, according to the Apostle Paul, is the rule of the Christian life for he says, “We walk by faith not by sight.” This means that faith, not prudence, ought to have the greatest influence of the Christian’s life. Whatever decision is to be made, though prudence be consulted, faith must be the ultimate guide. Many will here ask, “What does it mean to walk by faith?” The answer is almost too simple. Walking by faith is walking as if the presence and the power of God is real. Walking by faith is living in light of the unseen world. It draws its strength from a reality that falls beyond the senses. The Bible describes it this way, “For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith lives on the hope of another world, a world that is not seen. To say it another way, faith is that which connects believers to the invisible reality of God, which is the most important reality. The rub comes when the law of prudence clashes with the law of faith. A course of action that seems unwise to the world, may in fact be the very thing that faith demands. For remember, faith looks at reality from a whole other perspective, It looks at reality from miles above, as the eagle, and not from the myopic perspective of the earthbound rabbit. In other words, faith sees things as God sees them. The earthling, living by prudence only, sees what is in front of him. The Christian sees earth but through the eyes of heaven.

The Covid pandemic has revealed much about how we think as Christians. It has caused us to wrestle over how we should react to a real and present danger. How then are we to react? May I suggest that how we react to Covid as Christians is not unlike how we might react to anything else. We look at the issue from both perspectives, from the horizontal earthly perspective ruled by prudence and the vertical heavenly perspective ruled by faith. From the perspective of earth we do as many of our neighbors do. We respect the disease and try to respect how others view it. As citizens of this world we try to do our research and learn about the disease and who it is most likely to hurt. We study the data and act prudently. But the Christian’s responsibility doesn’t end there. As citizens of another world, they must also consider how to react to the Covid virus from a vertical perspective. Just as we want to follow the laws of earth, we also must follow the laws of heaven. Of course this process can get very messy and complicated. What if the demands of prudence say one thing and the demands of faith say another? And here is where many Christians fail the test. The word of God is clear that heavenly wisdom always trumps earthly wisdom. If the demands of faith push crossways against the dictates of prudence, faith must be obeyed. “Well,” you may ask, “what then does faith say?” Quite simply this: the health of the spiritual man is infinitely more important than the health of the physical man. The reasons for this are patently obvious. As important as the physical man is, he will not last forever. He is a dying entity that shall someday pass off the scene. Not only that but the physical man lives by the principle of self-preservation. He operates by prudence because he desires to stick around as long as possible and as a result of this the physical man rarely lives for the preservation of others. He is wholly inward focused and wholly self-centered. And therefore the physical man often lives by principles that either ignore or contradict the will of God. For this reason, Christians are not to live solely by the dictates of prudence. Rather the Christian is to live by the dictates of faith. Now faith accomplishes two things. First, it always looks toward the health of the spiritual man. Faith will drive a physical man to walk many miles to reach a place where the spiritual man will prosper. Faith will even cause a man to make decisions that are healthy for the soul but fatal to the body. Faithful martyrs, for example, have made a choice that is governed by faith which has cost them their lives. Faith always looks to preserve the health of the spiritual man who will live forever. Second, faith looks outside of itself to serve others. Because faith is not bound to self-preservation it is free to live outside its own needs. In short, prudence normally lives for self; faith, on the other hand, lives for the spiritual concerns of self and others.

This brings us back to Covid. Many Christians wanting to live by the law of prudence have forsaken many of the means of grace given to them by God to sustain their spiritual man. In the name of safety they have forsaken things crucial to the soul, like the gathering together with the saints, participation in the sacraments and ministries of service which strengthen both themselves and those they serve. Many have chosen to obey government laws over spiritual laws. In other words many believers have chosen to prioritize the laws of this world at the expense of the good of their souls. Now hear me well. Many of these Christians who have opted to live this way are not bad people. For the most part they are confused by the swirl of information surrounding Covid that tends to confuse clear thinking. Thus, the need of this hour is for strong Christian voices to turn the gaze of the church back toward heaven, back toward the world to come, back to faith. We need men who will fly above the common pursuits of mere mortals and give the church the eagle’s perspective. And in doing this, perhaps those in the church who have been stuck on the ground like anxious rabbits will begin to trust the God who created them, the God who knows the day of their death and who always demands faith over prudence.

Christian, what you frightened about? If Covid takes you, then you go to God singing His praises forever. The alternative is to live unspectacular lives as prudent rabbits, who are always afraid, who never display the power of God in their lives and who have no influential witness in the world. Strange isn’t it, that Christians who live most by the world’s laws have the least impact on it. And that, I say, is not to live at all.