Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXII
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore I will not fear…” (Psalms 46.1-2)
Churches rushed back to their buildings when Stay-At-Home Orders were lifted claiming, “We believe in faith, not fear.” Some churches encouraged mask wearing to protect those attending their services; others didn’t claiming they had faith. South Korea’s biggest surge of Covid-19 came through a mega-church with multiple campuses that would not give the government information to contact trace when hundreds got ill & deaths occurred due to the coronavirus. This caused their teary eyed Senior Pastor to apologize and plea for forgiveness. A choir practice infected a whole choir. Christians, for some reason, think they are exempt from getting the Covid-19 virus, but the virus is not a respecter of persons. It infects anyone and everyone who allows it. Let’s examine how the fear of Covid-19 is affecting us.
Fear Of Getting Covid-19
Covid-19 spreads through personal contact, air born particles from someone infected to others. Because of its severity and being highly contagious, it has filled hospitals, and over powered ICU units bringing death. It has earned our fear. Although President Trump originally announced it as a hoax, the public has learned how real it is with literally millions infected and tens of thousands of deaths. We need not fear it, but we sure do need to respect it. You can respect it without fearing it. When we recognize its reality and its severity, we can do things to control it and diminish it.
Fear Of Spreading Covid-19
We were given guidelines to follow to flatten the curve. At first we followed them, but as restriction were lifted we rushed towards being independent and were unwilling to continue to follow the guidelines that would bring gradual openings when it was safe. By ignoring the guidelines, we invited its spread, and it responded. We were unwilling to do it the right way with patience and caution, and we paid the Piper.
Fear Of Losing Control
Bottom line: Fear comes when you feel you have lost control. We can still control the pandemic, but it will take self-will, personal sacrifice, and the willingness to put the care of others before our own. The 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews in the Bible begins, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Right now America needs faith, the confidence in what we hope for,” the hope for a vaccine, the hope for our children to go back to school, the hope that something will feel “normal” again. But it is the “assurance about what we do not see.” Currently we do not see an end to all this, but it will end. We do not see a path out of this currently, but there is a path. But even during Covid-19’s darkest hour we have the assurance that there is a path that leads to and end, and we will end up there. That is faith over fear, but until then we must continue to walk through this journey, we must continue to sacrifice to save lives, and we must reach out to our peers, our neighbors, our friend and help calm their fears and join us in doing our part together to end this pandemic.
Faith always overcomes fear. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, or you are with me.” (Psalm 23:4)