Risk is Real

When I see ads on t.v. for financial advisors, and I hear at the end the disclaimer that investment involves risk, including risk of loss, I wonder who in the world needs that reminder? Evidently, the answer is me. I am not big on investing and let my retirement fund company worry about what’s happening in the markets right now, but I do need to be reminded at times that risk is real. Even with those reminders, I am not sure I believe it until the bottom falls out. Risk feels fun until we — or something we trust — fails.

My husband Dan’s closest friend is a nurse in the ICU of a major trauma hospital. Having served overseas and driven ambulances through combat zones, he’s not easy to rattle. The only drama I have ever heard him complain about is hospital politics, for which he has no patience at all. Last night, he told Dan about what it’s been like to treat COVID-19 patients, and his words were, “This is real.” He’s scared, having seen patients come into the hospital short of breath and end up on ventilators before the end of the day. To be scared in such a situation of course is natural, but coming from him, those words mean something.

Easter is the most joyous holiday of the Christian year. It celebrates life rising up and out from under the bonds of death, Jesus victorious over Satan and sin, love having the last word. We mark it with bright colors, new clothes, grand music, and pageantry. Mother Nature marks it with flowers and birdsong and the first hints of warm breeze. But today we don’t celebrate Easter. We slog our way through Good Friday. And Good Friday is real.

Good Friday’s reminders feel different in a time of pandemic:

1. Life is precious and fragile, and so are bodies.
2. People sometimes put a bag of silver ahead of human life; they — we — are often stupid and selfish and wrong.
3. Scapegoating — of nations, of saviors, of those who tell truths that hurt — presents a tantalizing escape from the reality of our own sinfulness.
4. We human beings both need each other and hurt each other, and only grace can save us.
5. We are not in control.

I say “reminders” because it’s not like we ever forgot. There’s a difference between forgetting and not being able to fully grasp a truth that is too much for our minds to manage. Risk is real. COVID-19 is real. Crucifixion is real, and so is resurrection. We mark Good Friday so that we might internalize just a little bit more how awful was Jesus’ passion on the cross. From the depths of despair, we watch in amazement as new life emerges through no other power than the goodness of God.

God so loved the world. That love? That’s real.