Author and pastor Alistair Begg reminds students to go ‘to the right place’ in this trying time

Cleveland-based pastor and Scotland native Alistair Begg joined Liberty University for Wednesday morning’s Convocation via livestream to share with students his advice on how to avoid staying in a place of self-pity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liberty Senior Vice President for Spiritual Development David Nasser sat down in-studio for an online question-and-answer session with Begg.

Begg began the morning by explaining why Psalm 13 has been his favorite chapter to read during the pandemic.

“This psalm has always intrigued me because it is very short and personal and doesn’t really have much context,” Begg said. “The thing about it that comes across so strikingly is the psalmist is absolutely overwhelmed. He feels like the circumstances of his life have been so destabilized that he can’t really make sense of them at all.”

He said that the psalmist insinuates that he has no idea of how long the terrible circumstances will continue. The verse reads: “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

Begg drew comparisons from the Scripture to the point of view that many across the world have toward the current crisis and explained how Christians can avoid allowing the pandemic to hijack their joy.

“We do have a different view of the world and therefore believe that we do not live in a random universe,” Begg said. “We believe that the God who created the universe is the one who searches us and knows us.”

Begg said that even though we have hope in the Lord, we do not have to behave as if we are not stressed and affected by the times we are living in.

“Once you’ve cried the blues for a while, you have to do what the psalmist did and that was essentially to pray,” Begg said. “He asked God to consider him and help him. He goes to the right place. The sun is always up there even when the clouds obscure it. There is a sense in which the sun is a metaphor of the constancy of God’s love.”

Begg said that the psalmist modeled how to honestly express to the Lord our thoughts while not remaining in a pit of self-pity.

“The strange thing about self-pity is that it is actually pride as well,” Begg said. “It is saying that ‘I deserve better than this.’”

During COVID-19, Begg said that he continues to dig into his hymnbook and find encouraging songs that he can sing in his spirit throughout the day.

Begg said that Christians can use this season of life to care for others around them.

“You think about Christian people who were involved years ago in plagues and the fire of London and what they did was neither take the high ground nor go crawl up in a ball, but they were the ones who were on the front lines of helping people who had no hope and had no idea of God,” Begg said. “I think this situation could be similar for us.”