Source: St. Lawrence Orthodox Church

Christians have a reputation for not freaking out when it is the popular thing to do. In the Russian gulag, with its terrible conditions, forced labor, destruction of the family and society, surrounded by death, the Christians were known as the “God-knows,” since their patent response to each additional hardship was, “God knows”; meaning, “And He will take care of us.”

As a person who is typically disinterested in politics, I’ve been intrigued more than ever by the ominous future that this presidential race, the housing market, and the current economic trends seem to foretell. What-ifs abound, real fear is near the surface for many, and yet there is very little actually to be done, for very little is actually known. History is in its course for being made, but it’s not past yet.

Without Christ, such times can be rife with not only fear, but actual panic, anxiety, and an overwhelming sense of things being out of control. But with our eyes set on the Kingdom of God, which means being interested in our salvation above all other things, there is a real peace that can be had, a profound sense of security and good fortune, in the midst of great chaos in the world. All it takes is turning to an increase of faith and regular prayer to increase our spiritual sight.

At the orphanage in Shanghai one day, a nun of St. John Maximovitch’s came to her wits’ end. A woman of great faith and trust under normal circumstances, she just couldn’t take it any more. She was surrounded by hungry children and the orphanage had no food—none. Panicked, she ran to St. John and voiced her fears: “What are we going to do? There is no food! Should we leave? Has God abandoned us?” St. John rolled his eyes a little bit and told her to have faith and trust in Christ. “I HAVE trusted!” she cried, “And the cupboards are bare.”

St. John Maximovitch

St. John sighed with measured exasperation and walked up the stairs to his cell. Immediately the house began echoing with the sound of his prostrations. Throughout the entire night, he continued prostrating himself before his icons, beseeching Christ to care for the children and increase the faith of the anxious sister. Such was the intensity of his physical exertion that the neighbors complained they couldn’t sleep well with the sound of his knees thudding on the floor. The poor nun barely slept, horrified at the asceticism she had caused her beloved elder to undertake.

Early in the morning, St. John’s knees still knocking on the floor, there was a knock at the door. The weary sister answered the door to find a delivery man. “Sorry to bother you, ma’am, but I’ve got a whole shipment of oatmeal here and no one can find the company that ordered it. I heard this was an orphanage, so if you want it, we’ll give you the whole thing.”

Shocked beyond words, the nun turned round and caught the eyes of St. John as he descended the stairs. She realized now that when the knock at the door had sounded, the pounding of St. John’s knees had immediately ceased. He lifted an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders harmlessly. There was no need for words, she knew. His expression said it all: “See, I told you. God knows.”

Difficult times are exactly the times when we are all called to grow spiritually. And the things we fear losing are many times the very things that are holding us back or distracting us from authentic life. I noticed clearly that when the cost of gas skyrocketed, families and friends were, by default, spending more quality time together.

God knows what we need. He even knows what our country needs! We do our part to preserve what is good, and to defend what is true, but it is when Providence unfolds that we find out if we have prepared our hearts to trust God and rejoice in His will for us. Being a community, nomatter how bad things get, we’re still having the experience together. And the joy of that togetherness, if embraced, usually renders the hardships well worth enduring.

We’re going to be just fine, because God knows.

P.S. Here are a few quotes from Fr. Seraphim Rose given to me this week by a parishioner—very fitting given the times.

“In a crisis situation . . . , when . . . all outward props are taken away, we can depend on nothing except what we’ve acquired within ourselves. . . . [W]hat is important is what you have in your soul. You must have Christ in your soul.”

“Here in the West we’re living in a fool’s paradise which can and probably will soon be lost. Let’s start to prepare—not by storing food or such outward things that some are already doing in America, but with the inward preparation of Orthodox Christians.”

“We who are given the fullness of true Christianity are obliged to be working on ourselves, to be watching [the] signs of the times, and to be extremely joyful, as St. Paul is constantly saying: Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say:Rejoice! (Phil. 4:4). We rejoice because we have something which all the death and corruption of this world cannot take away, that is, the eternal Kingdom of Jesus Christ.”