As I write this, we are days (or perhaps a month) away from promised tariffs being imposed by our next-door neighbour and biggest trading partner, which would dramatically change our nation’s economic reality. We are also days away from the election of a new leader for the Liberal Party of Canada, a leader who automatically becomes our Prime Minister, without the vetting and challenge of a general election. I can’t think of a time when Canada has, as a nation, been more adrift and less stable.
I don’t know anyone encouraged by what they see in our nation. Unprecedented government deficits at every level, corruption, division between provinces, lawlessness, antisemitism raging on the streets, the fentanyl epidemic, and the cost-of-living driving people into food banks and homelessness. Perhaps the government can fix some of this, but most certainly not all of it, and even if bold new policies were adopted, it will still take a good long time before these policies could meaningfully shift the national direction, especially with the massive economic blow we expect to encounter with looming tariffs. Friends, I think the years immediately ahead of us look pretty hard.
As we come to grips with this, our response first and foremost, must be to renew our trust in Him. We fix our eyes on Him through the wind and the waves, and worship the One who walks on the water even in the midst of a life-threatening storm. He is able to rescue us, provide for us, and even bless us while things around us are falling apart. So trust and worship never change, He holds us and we are secure.
Still, I think God has real purposes for this season and greater purposes than just proving His ability to care for us and our churches as we walk through hard times. He gets glory from the testimony of how He took us through trials, which is wonderful, but is there more? I think there is. Have you noticed that He often has layers of purposes and accomplishes many things at the same time?
So I ask two questions, “In this season, what does God want to do in Canada, and more importantly, what does He want to do in the Canadian Church?” Obviously, the Church and the nation overlap to some degree, but the Church is always the centre of His activity so let’s focus there.
Here are my suggestions:
1. He wants us to deliver us from the idolatry of comfort
2. He wants to build resilience through community
3. He wants to birth renewal
THE IDOLATRY OF COMFORT
There is nothing wrong with comfort, after all, the Holy Spirit’s name is the Comforter! But when our personal comfort becomes our highest priority, it becomes our idol. When comfort holds this place in our lives, we find ourselves in a genuine bondage to half-heartedness, apathy, and indifference. We don’t have the energy or faith to invest in any kind of significant change. It becomes easier not to care, not try, not speak up-- in fact it’s not just what’s easier, or more convenient-- but there’s actually a spiritual bondage to the love of comfort that holds us in its grip. That bondage means it will take spiritual warfare to be roused out of being enslaved by comfort.
Years ago, I travelled quite frequently to international prayer gatherings and summits. As I connected with Christian leaders from other nations, I often heard their surprise at how starkly different our spiritual climate and the spiritual struggles were. For them, it was like a slap in the face, they saw it so clearly. While it was so much harder for us to see, for we “swim in these waters”, they brought a refreshing, outside perspective. Even with the caveat that they weren’t entirely neutral (as they come from their own nation with its own issues), they saw what we can’t.
The big issue that was picked up again and again by leaders from a variety of nations, was Canada’s widespread and pervasive apathy. I think this is another way of saying that we have a national idolatry of the love of comfort. Of course, that’s not to say that all Canadians are apathetic, nor that Canadian Christians are idolators, but rather, this love of comfort has become woven into our culture and empowered spiritually to such a degree that it takes genuine intentionality to resist its pull.
This isn’t news to most of us, and most of us have done our best to resist this insidious demonic current without overcompensating and becoming exhausted by striving. There is, after all, a ditch on the other side that we can fall into if we make zealous commitment our goal rather than walking in the Spirit. Yet, with this in mind, how might God want to deliver us?
Of course, we all have to resist the spirit of the world, and resisting the love of comfort is a part of that, but there are also times when God brings an intervention. He strikes down idols so that their captives can be freed. This is what He did with the gods of Egypt-- He released plagues to break the power of the Egyptian gods, the idols that held the land and its inhabitants in bondage.
Could it be that the Lord is bringing a season of difficulty to Canada as a merciful intervention? Rather like the kindness of “tough love”.
Listen to what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Plain:
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” Luke 6:24-26
Remember, Jesus was entirely motivated by love, He was deeply concerned for those who had been seduced by the comforts of this world and grown spiritually numb, indifferent to their need for Him. He wasn’t speaking out anger but grief, a loving warning. He saw where this would take them. He was prophesying the road ahead for those who had prioritized material wealth, comfort, indulgence, enjoyment, entertainment, and the accolades of men. He was revealing that choosing these priorities leads to a “season of woe”.
But a “season of woe” can also be a rescue. It can be a tool that God uses to break deception and bring us back to reality, jarring us out of our previously entrenched habits and priorities. It can put us in touch with our need for God in a raw way and wake us up to the true, bitter fruit of our addiction to comfort. As shocking as that may seem, God loves us enough to bring suffering into our lives to purify and deliver us.
BUILD RESILIENT COMMUNITY
Another major problem in the Church that we can’t seem to overcome, is our stubborn independence. We love the luxury of calling the shots, sidestepping commitment to either our local church or the people in it, and acting like consumers when it comes to the Church’s benefits-- participating in what we like and avoiding the rest.
This is not what the biblical Church looks like. Metaphors of the Church in scripture use language like family and the body, conveying the understanding of high levels of interdependence and lives knit together in love. This is so different than what is frequently our shallow, self-centred engagement.
I’ve heard many pastors grieve over this culturally conditioned way of doing church, yet what can they do? Apparently, the norm for regular church attendance is no longer weekly, or even multiple times a week, but once a month. There are very few ways to disciple people who won’t let go of independence.
Perhaps hard times are needed. Difficult times force us to lean on each other, the luxury of independence and self-reliance is gone, and community becomes essential. We become resilient in hard times as a people. The dynamic give and take of community creates a strength and a synergy where the sum is greater than the parts, and the Spirit rests with greater grace upon our union. This is how the early church endured and even thrived through times of persecution. They did it together. So, could it be that one of God’s purposes is to build us into resilient community?
BIRTH RENEWAL
Now zooming out to consider the nation, it’s important to remember that it’s in days of upheaval and difficulty when many more questions about what in life truly matters, are asked. When I researched my book on Canadian revival history, I was surprised to find that almost all revivals had a backdrop of really difficult times. The distraction of worldly pleasure was stripped away and all of a sudden people started asking about spiritual realities. We rediscover our longing for something more substantial and transcendent to build our lives on. The jarring effect of hard times or “seasons of woe”, can produce glorious renewal of faith and vibrant life in the Church.
Whatever happens in the next few months, let’s hold fast to trust and worship with our eyes fixed on Christ. Let’s also open our hearts in faith and begin to boldly pray for seismic changes in the Church and nation that only seasons of woe can bring.
God is on the move!
Wise words in challenging times Sara. We need to wake up and engage with the Father's heart and one another.
Well said Sara. You've given me lots to think about, especially about how God loves to work through His Church.