My Essential PPE
The acronym PPE has gained universal recognition as the essential Personal Protective Equipment used to protect against the destructive invasion of an unseen microbe or virus. Post COVID, the entire world has come to understand PPEs to be essential in limiting the spread of contagion as our world wages war with viral assault.
Our lives, however, have always been exposed to threats and danger. Many, I grant you, do not come with a potential death sentence. Most do not reveal their presence quite as dramatically as COVID has. Nevertheless, 21st century life overflows with anxiety-inducing challenges that unsettle the emotions − some, threatening to destroy our bodies, minds and spirits. How do we prepare for those invasions? What ‘PPE’ do we count on to protect us?
There is another form of essential Personal Protective Equipment that one hears little about these days. This PPE is always available, personally adaptable to meet the needs of any situation, costs nothing and depends on no government to make it available. Best of all, this essential PPE provides so much more than any mask, gown or shield.
My own essential PPE for facing these uncertain days, is a personal faith in the God of all Creation, the God who created me, planned each day of my life and walks with me through every one of life’s circumstances. My life has one main purpose; to glorify my God and to accomplish the work He created and gifted me to accomplish here on earth. I believe that anything I face in this earthly life has the purpose of preparing me to accomplish that goal.
I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that NOTHING is going to harm me that my God has not pre-approved. NOTHING!
Yes, one day I will die. I believe He knows when that day will come and how He will choose to take me home. The reality is that I or someone in my family may die of the COVID 19 virus. It will not be a matter of ‘luck’ or lack there-of. It will be the sovereign will of our Creator God.
The question for me is not whether I will die. We will all die some day. The essential question for me is, am I ready to die? Ready for all that comes after life on this earth ends.
For me, it is beautifully summarized in the words of this poem, written by: Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend. Please take some time to read it and consider a gift that YOU, too, have received! A gift that perhaps you have yet to unwrap!
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May God’s grace, peace and protection bless you and your home throughout these challenging days!
In Christ Alone
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song.
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease.
My comforter, my all in all
Here, in the love of Christ, I stand
In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save.
‘Til on that cross, as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin, on him, was laid
Here, in the death of Christ, I live.
There in the ground, his body lay
Light of the world, by darkness, slain.
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave, he rose again
And as he stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am his and he is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, No fear in death,
this is the power of Christ in me.
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand.
Till He returns , or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
Keith Getty /Stuart Townend