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Greetings, Visitors and New Beginnings Family! Pour yourself a cup of Joe if you like, make yourself comfortable, and join me for the latest posting of, “Coffee with Gary!”

The Bible in Hebrews 12:1-3 describes the Christian life as a race. In Hebrews 11:13-16 it is referred to as a journey or a quest if you will. For all believers the “prize” is Jesus and the “destination” is heaven. However, the life paths we now travel and the obstacles we face in order to obtain the prize and reach our common destination are as different as we are.

Despite our differing paths and the obstacles we face it can be said, “We’re all in this together.” Fortunately, as members of the community of faith in Christ Jesus we are empowered to encourage one another in our common quest to reach heaven and obtain the prize!

Within all of humanity there are innumerable groupings of communities with common goals and destinations. Perhaps one of the smallest and most basic community is the family unit. To illustrate a common destination, I’ll use as an example my family vacation.

Many of us at one time or another have been on a long road trip with young children. Linda and I with our children Christina at 10 years old and Jeffrey at 6, embarked on a journey of 1,635 miles from Baltimore, Maryland to San Angelo, Texas.

To say, “We’re all in this together” unquestionably applies to four persons cooped up in a car for two long days! In spite of our common destination, we all had different obstacles to overcome in-route to San Angelo without driving each other crazy.

For me, I struggled with fatigue while driving on unfamiliar roads. Linda had to tend to any immediate needs the children encountered. For Christina it was furthering Jeffrey’s education, complete with quizzes of which he wanted no part. Oh, and incidentally, what Jeffrey really could have used was a geography lesson. At a restaurant in Texas Jeffrey proudly proclaimed to another patron that he was going Texas, to which the patron responded, “Son, you are in Texas!”

By helping each other overcome their obstacles we finally made it to San Angelo in one piece. Still, what everyone needed most were periodic breaks like the one we took at a rest area in Tennessee. Here the kids spent their pent-up energy running around and observing life sized “crash dummies” similar to the ones used in automobile crash tests. For me it was enough to relax my eyes after hundreds of mind-numbing miles behind the wheel.

Globally, all of humanity is facing the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no one this pandemic doesn’t affect in one way or another. This is why we say, “We’re all in this together.” Our common “destination” is to effectively treat the virus and develop a vaccine. All this in hope of returning to some sense of security in our lives. The obstacles we all face are too numerous to number. They can include death, sickness, fear, depression, stress, fatigue, domestic violence, unemployment, isolation, hunger, and financial ruin just to name a few.

For Christians, COVID-19 presents a number of unprecedented challenges and opportunities to meet the needs of both unbelievers and believers alike. We serve a God that is bigger than any infection we may encounter. By the power of the Holy Spirit we need to bring hope into seemingly hopeless situations because Jesus lives!

I have been asked to clarify the phrase, “Your fellow pilgrim in looking for a country of our own” as a closing to my blog. It is because I want us to face our current life circumstances with a heavenly perspective in our lifelong quest for “a country of our own.” We are indeed, “All in this together.”

Your fellow pilgrim in looking for a country of our own. (Hebrews 11:13-16)

Gary

P.S.  Please note that I have added two verses to Hebrews 11:13-14 because I failed in my last blog to reference the passage in its full context.