But this I know
I’d like to start with something that was said in March last year as the pandemic was spreading across the nation. “I do think that looking at it all, we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks”[1]. That was Boris Johnson, predicting that the Covid situation would be better by June last year.
Well I’m not being critical, I couldn’t have done a better
job as Prime Minister over the last year. And in fact, I have made the same
mistakes- on our street here in Huntingdon we were talking about having a
street party last summer at the end of the pandemic. It’s now nearly a year
since the first lockdown, and my kids are still at homeschool. Well it’s been
great to hear the government’s latest steps forward and the progress made with
the vaccine.
The point I’m trying to make is that there are a lot of
things we just don’t know. We don’t know when this Island will be Covid free. We
don’t know what will come post Covid. We don’t know what today will hold, we
don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I’m not being gloomy, I’m trying to be realistic.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
There’s just so much that we don’t know in life. There was a
fascinating “Analysis[2]”
on Radio 4 on Sunday night saying that we make decisions on the economy, on
Covid, on all sorts of areas of life, and we might need to learn to be a little
bit more humble, and just say that we don’t know!
The Bible also tells us to be careful in the expectations
that we set. In the book of James it says “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or
tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business
and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is
your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this
or that.’
There’s a lovely hymn that we sometimes sing at Christ Church
Huntingdon. Four times, it says “I cannot tell”. But four times it says “But
this I know”. But this I know, He heals
the broken-hearted, and stays our sin, and calms our lurking fear, and lifts
the burden from the heavy laden, for yet the Savior, Savior of the world, is
here. “I cannot tell… but this I know!”
Apart from death and taxes there’s a lot of uncertainty! But
you can be certain of this. There is a God in heaven. He knows the worst of
what you’ve done, yet he still loves you. He offers you forgiveness and a fresh
start if you will turn away from your old life and turn to him. He loves you.
He cares for you. Whatever you’ve done, he calls you home. Now that is good and
certain news. Thanks for listening.