What are you doing here?

Again, the wind howls relentlessly round the house, weaselling its way in the cracks with whines and whistles, causing unpruned bushes to scrape and scratch at the windows. It feels as if the wind has been our constant companion for weeks. Not a fan of it.

Covid-19 is similar. Only more threatening. More fear-inducing. Ignorance is not bliss. We don’t know much about Covid-19; if we did, we could choose our weapons more carefully and target the fight more precisely. Instead we are all hunkered down in our houses, googling how to make hand sanitiser and anti-bac spray and wondering when it will end.

Such global upheaval raises the question: what is God saying to us? Elijah longed to see and hear from God, so God took him out onto a mountain. A great and strong wind rent the mountains, crumbling some of the rocks. It wasn’t God. Then there was an earthquake, but God was not in that either. Next there was a fire, but no God there either.

Finally, there was a still small voice. Elijah recognised who was speaking. It was the Lord. And what was he saying? ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’

I wonder if God is whispering to me today. What are you doing here, Michele?

Well, I could laugh as I defend myself, Boris has put me in lockdown. Can’t go out.

True. But I can be more effective in lockdown than I can running around the place. I can worship. I can pray. And I can obey and do whatever he says. Feed the hungry. Pray for the persecuted. Phone the lonely.

Perhaps he’s asking Church the same thing. What are you doing here, Church? Are you shining a light in the darkness? Holding out hope as you share Jesus?

What are you doing here? Where would Jesus be?