The questions are beginning to loom over us.  What will life be like when we are free to congregate again?  How will we transition back to life as normal? Will things be the same as they were

before the quarantine?  This shutdown happened so quickly and ushered us into our current state with such little warning that we didn’t have the ability to get prepared mentally or economically.   The economy and jobs were growing.  People were watching their retirement increase in a booming stock market.  Summer getaway plans were being crafted.  We were busy dreaming of and preparing for long-term goals… then all of that ceased.  Jobs were lost.  The stock market tanked.  Investments for retirement were swept away without warning.  The ability to plan for anything beyond next week had vanished.  This all reminds me of a parable given by Jesus in Luke 12:16-21 – take a moment to look it up and read it right now. 

Did you read it?  Sounds a lot like the scenario that many of us are living right now, doesn’t it?  Everything was going well.  We had an abundance.  Plans were being made to “enlarge the barns” so that we could store up the blessings.  We saw light at the end of the tunnel and were looking forward to meeting some long-term goals.  For some, it seemed that a nice retirement was going to be possible where they could finally relax, pursue their pleasures, hobbies, and leisure activities.  “But God said unto him, Thou fool” (v.20). 

You see, just like the man in the parable, we don’t know what the next day will bring forth either.  That’s why Jesus relates this parable to us - “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (v.21)  If we are laying up treasures for ourselves, we are being “fools” like the man who thought that tomorrow would always be there and put his trust in the hard work, strategy and the abundance of what he possessed.  In the midst of a quarantine with jobs lost, the reality of isolation settling in, the uncertainty of economic recovery, and the unknown changes to life after get through all of this, perhaps we are more able to understand this message than ever before. 

I’m not saying that we all had life by the tail before the quarantine hit.  But whether rich or poor, we all have a tendency to fall into the trap of laying up treasure for ourselves.  Can you really say that you are living a life that is “rich toward God”?  While we are in this time of limbo, when the distraction of living for other things is a little bit dimmer, focus in on the one who holds tomorrow in his hands.  God knows your struggles at this time.  He is in full control.  However, don’t continue down the path of purusing those things.  We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  We are foolish to think that we can depend upon it.  Put your hopes, your desires, your goals, and your dreams in the one who knows what is coming next and you will find satisfaction and fulfillment regardless of the uncertainties that life will surely bring.  God will not let you down, but tomorrow will. As the psalmist said, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”  (Psalm 37:4)