The Corona Survival Guide for SinglesSample

Replace secrecy with community

The empty room tempted me.

I can recall that night, years ago, when I was hundreds of miles from home, alone in my hotel room. Tired from a long day of grad school and lonely without my wife and daughters, I felt the lure of Satan’s attack.

I was alone. No one was watching. And the hotel TV (with its many channels) was right there.

As I recall that night, I think of my single brothers and sisters living through the coronavirus. These days there is more than enough exhaustion, frustration, and loneliness. And, unless you have kids still in the home with you, there is plenty of privacy. No one is watching. And temptation is right there.

There’s the bottle of wine, which you could finish all by yourself.

There’s the internet, which would love to sell you things you can’t afford.

There’s the internet, which has gluttonous amounts of gossip.

There’s the internet, which is filled with more fear than a horror movie.

There’s the internet, which has more sexual immorality than you could see in 70 lifetimes.

There’s the internet . . .

Okay, you get the point. The world has always been filled with temptation, but this isolated world makes that temptation even more tempting.

Which is why I want to encourage you to replace secrecy with community.

Satan and your Savior are in a daily duel. The former wants you to keep secrets; the latter wants you to make confessions. The former wants you to hide; the latter wants you to connect. The former wants you to be an army of one; the latter wants you to be an army of some.

Jesus’ view is well summarized in the proverbs—“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

I love that verse. It implies that you have already sinned, that you fell, that you failed. Yet it still offers mercy, specifically to those who confess their sins. In addition, it promises spiritual prosperity to sinners who refuse to stay stuck in the darkness and keep secrets.

Maybe today is God’s way of bringing you back into the light—of shoving you to that bright, initially painful, place where darkness has to flee. The spot where you open up to your community and hear their words of mercy, words they have mentally copied and pasted from the Scriptures.

“God is love. Even now. You know he loves you, right?”

“Great is his faithfulness. His mercy is new every morning. This morning too. Do you understand that?”

“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So I guess he died for a sinner like you too, huh?”

This is the best reason to confess. Yes, the accountability is great. But the gospel, spoken to us from outside of us, is even greater.

So if corona has urged you to sin in secret ways, it’s time to share those secrets. Come out into the light! Tell someone! And give them the chance to tell you about Jesus.