In Leicester England, an inscription on the entrance to a church built in the 1600’s reads, “When all things sacred were throughout this nation either demolished or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley, Baronet, founded this church. [He it is] whose singular praise [is] to have done the best things in the worst times and hoped them in the most calamitous…” England was, at the time, in the midst of a period of upheaval and civil war and Sir Robert was arrested before the church could be completed and taken to the Tower of London where he died. (“Staunton Herald,” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Oct 2020)
We have had some practice with upheaval in this year of pandemic and civil unrest. I don’t know what life was like for Sir Robert-what turmoil and tragedy influenced his views and what burdens he carried. This monument to his hope, though, tells me that in spite of those things (or maybe because of those things,) he chose to look to God as his source of solace and direction and to move forward-to act-in ways that demonstrated his faith and pointed others to Him as well. When the world around him was chaotic and out of his control, he focused on what he could do and did it, whatever the consequences.
No matter what our circumstances, we can do likewise. We may never have the opportunity to build a structure with an inscription like this that lasts for hundreds of years, but our influence is no less important for being less grand. We can demonstrate our faith in the worst of our own times, looking to God for strength and comfort and, by acting on that faith, invite others to look to the source of all good things. We can do the ‘best things’ that show where our desires truly dwell and whose opinion really matters. Our monument may not be in stone and wood, but will be in the ‘fleshy tables of the heart–‘ (2 Cor 3:3) both our own (because acting in this way can’t help but change us,) and in those we influence. In the eternities, those are the memorials that last.
What an awesome aspiration it is to do the ‘best things in the worst times’ and to have hope in the times when it is hardest to do so!
