What to Do?
So many people, common people, not TV commentators or “experts,” have given their opinions on all that’s happening in the news. In the twinkling of an eye we went from a round-the-clock focus on the coronavirus pandemic to racial upheaval. Suddenly the safety guidelines, like social distancing, strictly enforced two weeks ago, didn’t seem to matter.
The criminal and senseless death of George Floyd led to an eruption that has not stopped spewing in various directions. The protests against racism, the riots, the demands to dismantle or defund the police force, unlawful takeovers of significant parts of major cities all lead one to ask, “What should we do?”
In many cases, there is uninvited counsel on what to do. For instance, you may get labeled a certain way if you don’t post the right hashtag. If you happen to post a misinterpreted innocent comment in this volatile climate, the comments are hurled at you like bricks and bottles at a riot. And they’re meant to hurt. What do you do? Respond in kind? Keep posting and take your chances? And how can you be part of the solution?
It’s common to hear news anchors and others offer comfort to victims they may interview with the statement: “You’re in our thoughts and prayers.” I’ve observed more than one, a growing number, who take offense at that. They say, “We don’t need your thoughts or your prayers, we need change! We need action!” The assumption being that prayer is nothing. Prayer does nothing. Prayer is an excuse for not getting involved. Not true.
As Christians we know that the answer is not social programs, more laws, political change, sensitivity training or more civil disobedience and worse. The answer is equality. Recognizing that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We are all equally guilty, equally fallen, equally in need of a Savior. It’s frustrating to see the futility of people desperately trying to resolve problems with mere human solutions while minimizing and rejecting the One who offers the only lasting solution.
Greg Koukl, Christian apologist and author, is used to offering good answers. Like all of us, these confusing times lead him to ask what to do. He writes:
The present situation is somewhat of a Gordian knot—a tangle of evil events, emotions, and reactions…
As a Christian thinker, I want to untie that knot, I’m frustrated as an apologist that I don’t have the power to do so, to present a line of thinking that will remedy the problem and bring healing to all of us.
The biggest reason I can’t is that this isn’t just a “problem” to be solved by clever thinkers. Our communities will only ultimately be repaired as its individuals are spiritually reborn. This is a battle that requires a spiritual solution.
It’s a time to get on our knees and pray for the Lord’s intervention—for wisdom for our leaders, for truth to prevail, for hearts to be changed, for grace to be extended.
(https://www.str.org/w/do-justice-love-mercy-and-walk-humbly-with-our-god.)
Not having the answers or knowing just what to do points to our need to trust God. He does have answers and knows what to do. Let’s seek His thoughts through prayers.
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”
─Isaiah 55:6-8