​We are now into the third week since Premier Ford made a declaration of emergency for the province of Ontario on March 17 (1) and all non-essential services, schools and public gatherings of more than fifty people were restricted. That number has now been amended to five over this past weekend (2). “Social distancing” will be one of the phrases by which the year 2020 will be remembered. All due to the global village our planet has become.
 
The Sars-CoV-2 virus started spreading to humans towards the closing weeks of 2019 in the province of Wuhan, China. To date, Covid-19, the disease that it generates, has caused almost 38,000 reported deaths around the world. If unchecked, governments fear the numbers will continue to soar. Thus, some, like Italy and Spain at the top of the list, have taken extreme measures to contain the spreading of the said virus. In Canada so far, that involves minimizing our social contact with others by staying home. Of all the age groups, seniors are the ones being guarded the most to the point where grocery stores are dedicating specific hours for golden agers to shop.
 
With all the isolation being practiced, most of us have come to appreciate, more than ever, the technology of the twenty first century. Cell phones, emails, video teleconferencing, social network services such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are keeping us in touch with each other and giving our lives a sense of normalcy. Just the other day pastor Charles Skeete and I had the opportunity to join eighty other religious leaders from the city of London, Ontario, in a video conference call with the office of the Mayor via ZOOM. It was fascinating to hear the reports of how the various religious communities were adapting to the present reality by facilitating online gatherings and support.
 
All this connectivity is made possible thanks to the satellites receiving and retransmitting our communications around the planet. All that information sent around the world wirelessly, unseen to the naked eye! Makes me think of another wireless communication that connects me with the One who can sooth all my fears and gives LIGHT in times of darkness.
 
Some have described prayer as “the opening of the heart as to a friend” (3).  It brings us closer to Him and by faith we make our joys, sadness, fears and desires known. 
 
A fascinating prayer in the Bible is the one addressed and recorded by Daniel in the ninth chapter of his book. After so many seconds of pleading with God, the angel Gabriel is sent to comfort Daniel and give him understanding. The angel says to Daniel: “At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.” (Daniel 9:23). Why is this fascinating?
 
Consider this, according to NASA (4) it would take a rover in Mars 20 hours to transmit 250 megabits of data (about 50, 5Mg pictures) directly to earth.
 
Voyager 1 is the man-made object having traveled the farthest distance from Earth to date. Launched in September 1977, the satellite had traveled almost 21 billion kilometres by the end of 2017. After receiving and executing a set of commands from Earth to make sure its antenna continues to face Earth, it took another 19 hours and 35 minutes for the reply to travel back through space (5).
 
Are you starting to see what I see? Back in Daniel 9 the angel says to the prophet that when he began his prayer, the order was given to go out to comfort him! Astrophysicists tells us that there is no faster speed than the speed of light (299 792 458 m/s) and that it takes over 4 years to travel to our closest neighbouring star (after the Sun) at that speed. It took less time for God to hear and respond to Daniel’s prayer! Now, there’s a communication system that we can rely on.
 
The protocols for prayer are minimal but are made possible by Jesus Christ:

• direct your thoughts, to your loving, heavenly Father
• speak to Him as to a friend
• be ready to listen as He speaks through His written Word
• Claim the righteousness of Jesus for yourself as you finish your prayer on account of His name.
• Keep your antenna facing God’s throne ready to receive new commands!

 
What about posture? Whether it be standing, sitting, kneeling or else, let your posture inform the expression of your heart to God.
 
Whatever your circumstances, whatever your state of mind or heart, whatever your trials, God is willing to hear you and respond to you. He is only a prayer away!

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(1) https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2020/03/ontario-enacts-declaration-of-emergency-to-protect-the-public.html
(2)https://files.ontario.ca/solgen-oic-gatherings-events-2020-03-28.pdf?_ga=2.237680256.1259894360.1585646064-1088158048.1585533724
(3) White, Ellen G. Steps to Christ, p.93.2. https://egwwritings.org/?ref=en_SC.93.2&para=108.369
(4) https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communications/
(5) ​https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=108

Have you ever been called crazy?
     In today's socio-political climate, belief in an all-powerful Being who spoke the world into existence in six literal days is viewed as naïve at best, with some feeling outright hostile toward the notion of the supernatural. 
     Christians are regularly mocked, belittled, and dismissed by much of the secular world, including the entertainment industry, academics, and scientists.  Accusations of racism, homophobia, and bigotry are leveled against God's followers on a regular basis. 
     In the face of such negativity, how should Christians respond?  Sadly, many church goers keep their heads down, hoping no one calls them out for their beliefs.  Others resort to aggression - mocking or challenging those who dare to question God's character. 
     Perhaps there's another way.  I've always been intrigued by the ubiquitous slogan that has found its way onto a myriad of merchandise, from coffee mugs to baseball hats:  Keep Calm.  You've all seen it: keep calm and chive on...keep calm and eat some chocolate...keep calm and drink this tea...
     There's value in maintaining a calm demeanor in the face of resistance and anger.  One look at the last year in the US shows the division and damage caused by anger.  While there is certainly a time to be angry, the last thing Christians should be doing is getting upset about something that Christ said was going to happen!  In John 15, Jesus tells His followers what's in store for those who accept Him, and who stand against the values of the world.  He says "if you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."  (John 15:19) 
     Here's the thing - we should not be surprised or dismayed when some people hate us for reflecting the values of Christ.  But we must, as Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5, love our enemies.  The moment we become unnecessarily angry at someone, we lose any moral ground we were standing upon.  Perhaps the greatest Christian challenge is to remain calm, always remembering that the world hated Christ long before it hated us.  Remember, the message of Christianity was and always will be controversial.  Our definition of family, our call for sexual purity, the challenge to financially sacrifice, and our invitation to surrender our will to a superior Being are just a few facets of our counter-cultural narrative.  If people encounter this message in the form of an angry, aggressive, sour-faced church-goer, they will want nothing to do with it.  But when they see the love of Christ reflected in a calm, cheerful Christian, then the radical message of the Bible will be framed in the way it was intended - within the passionate love of God for a fallen race, and His unending desire to save us from eternal death.
Keep Calm -- God is in control!

​James Rooney