Perspective

by Don Hooton | March 15, 2020

With the COVID-19 virus now a pandemic, the elders are trying to manage our responsibility to God and our responsibility to you in this pandemic. Some believe that many are over-reacting and there are those who believe the earth is dying.  Either extreme is dangerous. And the perspective I hope you will see is that prepared security is not the same as panic.

The word “panic” is named after the Greek mythological demigod named Pan, a mischievous forest god.  Legend says that his favorite diversion was to torment Greek travelers on the byways. Lying in wait and concealed in the bushes, Pan would rustle the bushes as a traveler passed by when he would gently rustle the bushes. The traveler would be startled and pick up his pace. Pan would meet the traveler again and again making the traveler hasten to Pan’s amusement. Soon the traveler’s breathing became heavy, his heart would pound. One more rustle from Pan and the traveler would run along the dark and narrow forest path in… Panic.

In some circles, these pandemics create panic – just like that. Imaginary, illusory triggers make adrenaline-fed hyperventilation common place. But in these moments, Christians need to be reminded of the Voice of God. In every time and in every place, we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me” (Hebrews 13:6)?

Even in the last two centuries, we have learned from others when similar events created panic.

David Lipscomb (“The Cholera and the Christian Religion,” Gospel Advocate 15.28 (17 July 1873) 649-653), during a Cholera outbreak in Nashville where 1 out of 25 residents died, write: 

“Christ gave in precept for the government of his followers the rules of his own life. [As] Paul [said] to the Galatians (4:15), ‘My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.’ To reproduce the life of Christ in our own lives is to act as Christ would act, were he in our places. We thus become Christ’s representatives to the world…  Now in view of these things and the wild panic that seized the population, what would Christ have done in the emergency?… Would he have become panic stricken with fear—fear of death, and have used his means to get himself and family, with their fashionable and luxurious appendages out of danger, to some place of fashionable resort and pleasure, and left his poor brethren and neighbors to suffer and perish from neglect and want?… The religion of our Savior was intended to make us like Christ, not only in our labor of love—of our self-sacrifice for the good of others, but also in raising us above a timid, quaking fear of death… These fatal scourges, under God, become opportunities to show the superior excellence of the Christian religion, in giving true courage, love and self-sacrifice to its votaries… Christian men and women should be prudent, and cautious in such surroundings

C.S. Lewis, some 72 years ago about the fear of the Atomic Bomb, wrote:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”  In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.  This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends… —not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

So here is my exhortation to perspective.

Many respond that the greater pandemic is sin in the world to which everyone has the cure at their disposal: Jesus Christ. That is very true. Yet, that wonderful gift does not change the need to respond against infections. The promise of Messiah was given before the Law but still God commanded Moses to  quarantine those infected to protect the community (c.f. Leviticus 13). If then it was not a lack of faith on a believer’s part to keep social distance for the sake of the community’s wellness, it is not now either.  And refocusing our attention away from the danger of infection to the regular demand for sin’s healing is equally the same as telling people that God never wanted anyone quarantined – except just to trust Him.  It is not panic to pronounce procedures of prepared caution. It is panic when you do not believe God will get you through this and it is foolish to mock the efforts to keep the community well.  So, don’t yield to fear mongering but don’t be so foolish to believe that quarantine practices are not good for the community or are somehow a lack of faith – God instituted them. Keep perspective.

Lipscomb said, “Christian men and women should be prudent, and cautious in such surroundings…”

And Lewis said, “do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation” but would later go on to urge us being found “doing sensible and human things” in which his list included living – and I would add to the living – living wisely with respect to the way God asked Israel to quarantine.

Don’t panic. But keep perspective. If God knew what he was talking about, keeping social distance and eliminating opportunities for infection is always wise. But lastly, don’t be afraid to serve those who may fall prey to the virus – if there is something you could do – show them Jesus in you.