Jump Start # 3013

Joshua 22:22 “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, the Mighty One, the Lord! He knows and may Israel itself know. If it was in rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord, do not save us this day.”

One thing that has surfaced out of the social media hype and news about the pandemic is that experts do not agree. Masks or no masks– lots of differing voices weighing in on this. And, vaccines, boosters—are they doing any good? Some say “yes.” Some say “no.” The medical community is divided. The politicians are extremely divided. And, we the citizens do not know what to believe. What is truth? What is bias? What is part of a bigger political agenda? Who is paying for all of these things and who is profiting from all of these things? Theory upon theory. One thing that comes out of this loud and clear is that the experts do not agree.

But, this isn’t the only time.  In 1975, Newsweek magazine published a article entitled, “The Cooling World,” in which writer, science editor Peter Gwynne, described a significant chilling of the world’s climate, with evidence accumulating “so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it.” He raised the possibility of shorter growing seasons and poor crop yields, famine, and shipping lanes blocked by ice, perhaps to begin as soon as the mid-1980s. Meteorologists, he wrote, were “almost unanimous” in the opinion that our planet was getting colder. Scores of similar articles, some with even more dire predictions of a “little ice age” to come, appeared during the 1970s in such mainstream publications as Time, Science Digest, The Los Angeles Times, Fortune, The Chicago Tribune, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Popular Science, and National Geographic. And, yet, today, no one seems to talk about those things today. Now, it’s all about a warming climate. The experts do not agree.

The experts do not agree about what happened to the dinosaurs. The experts do not agree about how crowded the planet is becoming. The experts do not agree about what is the best way to manage forests. The experts do not agree about which foods are the best for us. The experts do not agree about how to parent a child. The experts do not agree about how to treat mental illness. The experts do not agree about how to treat diseases. And, of course, the experts do not agree about the origin of life. And, for common folks, like you and me, we are left wondering, “Does anyone know?” All of this can be unnerving for us. The experts cannot agree. Here are some thoughts:

First, God knows. That’s what our verse tells us. He knows. He knows how many hairs are on your head. He knows when a sparrow falls. He knows what’s in your heart. He knows what you go through. God is the one who is always right. That is why in Psalms we learn that we do not put our trust in the strength of horses or in chariots or bows. Our trust is in the Lord. The Lord knows. And, as Paul said in the book of Acts, things will turn out exactly as we have been told. It will not be a man-made disaster that ends life here. We must put our trusts in what the Bible says.

Second, experts are limited with what they know and what they have to work with. History is a great reminder of that. There was a time when the best medical wisdom would have a patient bleed out his disease. That didn’t turn out well for most patients. New studies. More advancement in research. The experts changed their conclusion. But even in the same moment in time, experts do not agree. Our current pandemic is a great example of that. Different ideas. Different theories. We are left with doing what we are told, but with the understanding that this likely can change and not be the practice in the future. God sees in all directions, including into the future. God is already in tomorrow.

Third, it helps to do your own homework. In our current culture today, it’s hard to know what is driven by science and research and what is politically based. Those two are not the same and often they have different goals in mind. Get second opinions. Don’t believe something just because an “expert” tells you. Seek proof. Know for yourself. Draw your own conclusions.

Fourth, our lives must be wrapped around faith and not what others tell us to do. The experts can be wrong. They have been wrong in the past. God will get us through. God will be there for you. Think about what little information and knowledge the common person had in a 12th century village in Europe. News traveled extremely slowly. Outside the village, most knew nothing else. Diseases like smallpox often wiped out small villages. For the people of God, their hope, trust and faith was in the Lord. Even through death, God would be with His people.

Watching TV talk shows can make a person dizzy. Expert after expert is paraded onto the screen telling us that what we’ve been told by other experts is all wrong. Who knows. And, after a while, who cares.

God knows.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Roger