Like many, I hope that as the vast, ominous clouds of the COVID-19 pandemic gradually disperse we shall still be able to see some of the silver linings. For instance, we have seen traffic levels decline and so accidents on the road and levels of local pollution have fallen dramatically. Global emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere have been cut by significant amounts. More people are exercising and taking the opportunity to make changes for better in their lifestyle. Lots of homeless people have been provided with accommodation... Many folk have got to know their neighbours better in a few Thursday evenings of clapping the NHS than in the anonymous years before. Doubtless there are many other examples, but the point is that some good things have come even under the sombre clouds of suffering, tragedy and hardship. Optimists and activists are calling for the levels of energy and commitment of resources devoted to combatting the pandemic, to supporting society and sustaining the economy to now be devoted to fixing in place and making permanent these changes for the better. Surely, this is a good ambition. 

But is it realistic? Already, traffic levels are increasing sharply and the fear is that the need to limit the use of public transport will lead to even more vehicles on the road and more pollution. As industry and the economy get going again, some fear that there will be even greater surges in the level of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere and that the trends will simply continue upwards. How long will the beneficial changes in personal lifestyle last? What will happen to business and the economy when the levels of support from Government start to tail off? Will homeless people soon find themselves back on the streets? Will the spirit of neighbourliness and cooperation last once we are out of the worst of the lockdown? History, I fear, does not give much cause for genuine optimism, rather it teaches us that hopes of new and better worlds to follow catastrophic events tend to be hopes dashed and opportunities lost.

Of course, we may still hope the silver linings will remain even after the clouds have cleared. Underneath though there is a factor little considered yet which is actually crucial. Our own human nature. The problems that we see so clearly - and hope may lead to change for the better - betray their root cause, which is our own sinful nature. Without change in our hearts there can be no change for a better world. Yet the Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9), which does not sound hopeful. If we pin our hopes on our own ability to change for the better, then we are bound to be disappointed - "Can the leopard change his spots" asks Jeremiah (13:23) and, of course, the answer is no, it's not possible. And it is no more possible for us human beings to make our hearts truly good and so change for the better. 

So, I am deeply pessimistic about humanity's capacity to bring much good out of this terrible time. But, I am completely optimistic that God can bring a change to human hearts. This is something impossible to us, but possible with God. In fact, the promise God makes is that because of Jesus Christ, by His love, His life, death and resurrection power, we can be given 'new hearts' and can become like 'new creations' (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is a personal matter of coming to Christ for salvation from sin and a new start. Those who have come know that as a Christian you really do possess grounds for optimism for the future and a better world to come. Not a world in we which might, rather cynically, say, 'every silver lining must have a cloud', but one in which there are no clouds.