Conquerors – psalm37fretnot

I have always loved the analogy that Rose Marie Miller gives in her book FROM FEAR TO FREEDOM about a caterpillar in a ring of fire. More about that later…

While the boundaries for venturing out are getting tighter and tighter, I am asking myself what, if anything, can be the silver lining in a pandemic crisis like Covid-19? I once went to see a movie with my husband called CONTAGION. Only minutes into this movie, which I wouldn’t have chosen but was being a “good sport” to go see, a real emergency happened. A member of the audience was having a life threatening episode which required the call to emergency personnel and a shut down of the movie. We did not discover if he was resuscitated or not. Yet, I am personally glad that I didn’t get a technicolor and surround sound movie experience of what a true pandemic could look like. My BP returned to normal and we went on with our day.

One thing about being cooped up now is having time to think. In my case, it’s having the time to do things that were on my back burner wish list – quilting, reading, and writing…

Romans 8:35-39 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, back to the caterpillar. The picture. If a caterpillar is stuck in the center of a ring of fire (just imagine), there is literally no way out. Unless. Someone pulls it out. Straight up. Out of harm’s way. When we are crawling around in the center of the flames, wondering what to do, we must look up instead of outward. We must reach heavenward instead of earthward. We can’t poke our way out. We will get singed. We must remind ourselves that the only Hand that pulls us out is Jesus.

Conquering faith is how we avoid the heat. Facts can be helpful. But, facts do not save us. Jesus saves. Just a reminder. We are more than conquerors.