Following the death of Prince Philip, I read a quote from Nick Bullen, who worked with the prince for his 90th birthday celebration. “He talked a lot about just getting on with things. Stop obsessing with trying to enjoy things. Stop obsessing over the emotion of a situation. Just do it; just get on with it. That’s what he said multiple times.”

A reporter covering the prince’s funeral added to that sentiment. If Prince Philip could say something to us today, the reporter said, he would say, “No fuss. Carry on.”

It’s along the same line the angels told the disciples on the day Jesus ascended.

Imagine what the disciples had been through. They had seen their friend and teacher brutally beaten and hung on a cross. They feared for their own lives and struggled to understand. They weren’t clear on the direction they should take going forward.

As Jesus disappeared from sight, angels stood next to the disciples and said, “Men of Galilee . . . why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

He isn’t gone forever. Don’t just stand there. Get to work.

I need to hear that too. It’s so easy to get bogged down by headlines and wonder what, if anything, I can do.

At some point, we have to carry on. Mask mandates or not, vaccines or not, school/church in person, or distance learning and watching online, somehow, someway we have to carry on.

And where do we start? It has to begin in the Word and with prayer.

When King Darius in the Bible issued the edict that no one was to pray to anyone but him for the next 30 days, Daniel went to his room, got down on his knees, gave thanks to God, and asked for help (Daniel 6). This man of God who was about to become second in command of an empire heard the headline and got down on his knees.

Are you overwhelmed with what’s happening, looking for truth but not knowing who to trust? Have you shut down because there’s so little you can do so you figure why do anything at all?

What if instead of shutting down, we put the burden on God as Jesus suggested? “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Jesus offers us an exchange like none I know: He paid the price, he’ll carry the load, and we get the peace of knowing he’ll carry the situations we can’t fix. Plus he gives us forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven.

We simply need to carry on spreading love and peace and hope to others.

I can’t fix racial tension, determine which study is most accurate, or determine how great your risk is if you do A vs. B or C or D. But as a family of believers, we can get through this together. Like Daniel, I’ll keep bringing the battle to God, asking for answers I don’t have and pleading with him to intervene in what seems to be impossible situations.

And together we can keep going to the Word, the truth, for the strength we need to get through each day. It’s what we needed pre-2020 and what we’ll need post-2021.

So carry on and be carried. God’s on the throne, and the world and all its struggles are not too heavy for him.