There’s a game I’m sure many of you have played once or twice as an icebreaker in group gatherings. Everyone goes around sharing two things that are true about themselves and one that’s a lie. Everyone else has to guess which one’s the lie and in so doing, everyone learns just a tad bit more about each other.
In this unprecedented time in our world, a time that none of us could ever have imagined, I have felt the tug and pull of truth and lies. Each day, I wake to news that multiplies in scope with seemingly impossible implications. How will we make it? When will this stop? This is TOO MUCH!
Just this week, I was reading Isaiah 33 and was moved by the timeliness of the chapter. Here are two truths and one lie that stood out (in reverse order):
Lie: We will be defeated. “The highways lie waste; the traveler ceases. Covenants are broken; cities are despised…The land mourns and languishes” (vv. 8-9). Satan wants us to focus on all that is broken, scary, and plain old messed up. Panic is the word of the day, hopelessness and fears rise, and despair sets in. But…
Truth#1: The Lord will be the stability of our time. “The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high… He will be the stability of your time” (vv. 5,6). In the chaos and confusion, in the wake of a scary virus, in the “I can’t believe this is happening,” we have Him. Like Peter’s eyes on Christ in the storm, so must we lock our eyes on the One who IS our stability.
Truth#2: He will be exalted. “Now I will arise,” says the Lord, “now I will be exalted” (v.10). Our Lord is in the business of redeeming, restoring, and healing, of bringing water from a stone, of turning a seeming defeat into the greatest victory ever. Resurrection Day is coming. He will be exalted.
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice entreats a Door to allow her entrance. The door replies, “Why it’s simply impassible!”
“Why, don’t you mean impossible?” responds Alice.
“No,” says the door, “I do mean impassible. [chuckles] Nothing’s impossible!”
What we face now in this moment in time in our world seems utterly impassible. But with our Lord, nothing is impossible. And that’s the truth.
