Nowhere to go.

As I looked at my own reflection in the mirror as I dried my hair this morning, I found myself asking the question: "Why are you doing this, you have nowhere to go?".

I have nowhere to go. Millions of people all over the world are facing the exact same predicament. We have nowhere to go. Life as we know it will probably never be the same again and even once we are allowed to move around freely, I suspect the statement will change from 'you have nowhere to go', to 'where to now?'.

Where to, once we step back into a world that has been shaken to it's very core. A world that has questioned and cried out in the midst of chaos: "Where are You God?". Where is the God who answers prayers and whose very core is made up of love, grace and mercy? Has He deserted us and is it fair to say we have nowhere to go because He has given up on us?

While I continued to dry my hair, I found myself answering my own question. "Just because you have nowhere to go, don't stop."

Don't stop.

Are we missing so much that we have reached the point where life, as we knew it, simply had to change so that we had no choice but to sit up and take note? Psalm 139:16 reads: "Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me. When as yet there were none of them."

So before I was even born, all my days had been set out for me. This truth is confirmed in the well known words of Jeremiah 29:11 which says: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I therefore refuse to believe that I have nowhere to go. I will not stop. I will continue, not only to believe in God, but to truly believe Him. So when I read these words in 1 Corinthians 14:33: "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace...", I will rest in that.

Can it be that God, who has assured us that before we even entered this world, we were perfectly knitted together with a clear, safe path set out for us, has sent us in lockdown so that we can get back on that path? Have we, as a world, strayed so far that we should view this crisis as a lifeline that has mercifully been cast our way?

Will a God of love, a God who reassures us in 1 John 5:14 that we have the confidence in Him to ask anything according to His will and He will hear us, leave us with nowhere to go? Is this not a call to return to His word and search for the truth that we as humanity have clearly discarded so long ago?

We are being stripped of so much - businesses and economies are failing, people are dying and morale is at an all time low, especially today, as we woke up to the new reality of an extended lockdown. An extended period of no income and the reality that our economy will most likely take years to recover.

The world is crying. People are dying alone, frontliners are working tirelessly amidst the chaos and it seems as if joy, prosperity and freedom have become concepts of the past. But amidst the tears, I choose to look for solace in the words of Psalm 126:5 which says: "Those who sow in tears will reap in joy."

If we can remain on our knees whilst mourning our losses, not only during this season, but always, our tears will not go unseen. The Lord promises in Matthew 6:26: "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

Today is Good Friday, the holiest day on the calendar for believers in Jesus Christ. How apt that we celebrate this in the midst of the crisis we find ourselves in. Reflecting on the day that our Lord was locked down on a wooden cross.

To the humans around him at the time it must have seemed as if He had nowhere to go after that. In their ignorance, they even rolled a boulder in front of His tomb so that His body could not be removed.

Apart from everything that happened on the day of the crucifixion, I would like to remind you of something that happened the evening before. Jesus had gone to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. These are the words of Matthew 26:39: " He (Jesus) went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will," Jesus put this request to His Father two more times. How often do we forget this lesson? Jesus Himself gave us the ultimate example of how to pray and how to walk in faith.

"Let Your will be done... " These are the words that will ultimately guide us back to the path that we were originally called to walk, a sacred path determined for us even before we were born.

We may have nowhere to go right now but this too will pass and I will cling to the words Jesus spoke in Mark 9:23: "...all things are possible to him who believes."

 Emilene Ferreira