Everywhere we turn it just feels like there’s just more and more bad news. I don’t watch the news and I’ve even stopped getting on social media so much. A lot of people on social media try to post positive things, but there are still so many who flood my newsfeed with fear, hate and apocalyptic doom.

I struggle with anxiety so I know this time is hard for many people. It’s increasing the anxiousness in those with anxiety; it’s weighing on those with depression; it’s burdening those among us who are extroverts (though I am not one of them). It’s scary for the people who themselves are or have loved ones who are in the high-risk groups. It’s putting stress on relationships and families because people are separated. Parents who still have to go to work every day may not be able to hug their children or spouse.

No matter how fun or relaxing someone’s quarantine looks on social media, everyone is struggling with something during this time.

But amidst all the struggling, I think there’s something so many people forget — our God has got the whole world in His hands. COVID-19 did not surprise God. He knew the day we were all born that we would be sitting in our homes, working at our essential jobs or wherever we find ourselves during this outbreak. We have hope, because no matter how out of control everything seems, God is in control.

But not everyone has that hope to cling to. Maybe some believe this virus is karma for all the pollution on the earth; maybe some believe this virus is just the next thing in the cycle of meaningless events that have stretched throughout history. Many believe there is no God; there is no one holding the world. And all of those people — they need hope. And what better time to share the hope that we, as Christians, have than now?

Now, more than ever in the years I’ve been alive, people need something higher to cling to. They need to be told about the God who loves them, who formed them, who holds their lives. They need to know there is peace to be had in this life, and in the next, whenever that may come.

One of my favorite verses is in Esther, and many of you probably have heard it before:

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

Maybe we were all put on this earth, in our jobs, in our neighborhoods, in our apartment complexes “for such a time as this.” This is your chance to share the hope of Christ with those around you (in appropriate social distancing ways, of course).

So in the middle of this crisis, cling to the hope we have in Christ, but don’t forget to also share that hope with those who need it.