Pray, Trust, Act, and Hope: An Easter Letter
by Michael Stokes Paulsen, Public Discourse:
Many of us—most of us, probably—are experiencing spiritual anguish and uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic. What follows is a letter I sent to my law students at Pepperdine, where I am visiting this semester. Several had asked “what I thought,” specifically as a Christian (and not just as a law professor) about all this. This was my heartfelt but decidedly non-expert response to the class.
I share it here, more or less as it went to my students, and invite you to “listen in”—on the beginnings of a conversation doubtless common among all struggling believers. It runs the range of emotions that parallel Holy Week—anguish, fervent prayer, faith in the midst of pain and grief, fear and doubt, and finally the expectant hope of restoration and God’s ultimate victory over evil.
Dear beloved Constitutional Law students:
This is not part of the assigned reading. (But some of you might find it to be of a tad bit more interest than the cases on the Commerce Clause.)
Some of you have asked me “what I think about all this” as a Christian—“all this” being the coronavirus, how to respond to it from the perspective of faith, how to maintain perspective, how to be. I know that some of you are experiencing pain, anguish, fear, and grief. You are not alone. And you’re looking for answers—or at least a framework for thinking about these things: something to hold on to. You are not alone on this score. I wish I knew and had all the answers. I don’t. I am writing this for you, even as I am working out my own thoughts and emotions.
I thought a good way to organize my thinking was to frame the question in terms of what Christians (and other persons of faith) can do. How should we respond? How should we react, spiritually, to all this? How do we process it?
My answer breaks down into four categories: Pray. Trust. Act. Hope. I’ll offer some thoughts on each.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
