Considerations for Our COVID-19 Conundrum

Indications are that the 3-month “war” on our “invisible enemy,” the COVID-19 virus, is beginning to show signs of success in flattening the “curve.”  Many states with minimal COVID-19 cases are working on plans to reinstitute “normal” operations of services and the economy.  However, there is much controversy over how and when to proceed.  Some medical experts still favor delay of opening to avoid more serious spread of the virus.  Others want to use personal tracking of the virus, a potential new invasion of our privacy.

While living under this very different experience, I am realizing that my disposition should be characterized by several attitudes or qualities.  These include thankfulness, repentance, realistic outlook, informed discernment, and intercession.

Thankfulness
In everything [even in a Coronavirus pandemic] give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5: 18).  As of this writing, I am thankful for the health of our family and friends, and for the following:
(a) recovery statistics are outpacing deaths by either direct causes (presumably by an overactive-immune system) and indirect causes (through pre-existing health factors in at-risk persons) causes. 
(b) infections and hospitalizations are far fewer than that of the swine flu (H1N1), in 2009-2010, and much smaller than other major causes of death (see table below).
(c) wise leadership of our president and the Coronavirus Task Force led by VP Pence, state governors, doctors and medical health care staffs, our armed forces, law enforcement, and church and para-church organizations (e.g. Samaritan’s Purse) deserves our thanks to God.
(d) alternative means of staying connected with our families and churches abound. Meanwhile,  we should recognize that many Christians in places like the Middle East, in China, and in North Korea cannot freely meet to worship even apart from the COVID-19.

Repentance
Repentance, confession of our sin, and worship should be an ongoing part of the lifestyle of a dedicated Christ-follower.  How blessed are the poor in [their] spirit (Matthew 5: 3).  We can be humbled to our knees when we read again the accounts in Scripture of how people reacted in repentance and worship when they bowed before the Living God.  Repentance and spiritual awakening often occurred when God’s people faced great challenges, opposition from mighty armies, or threat from pandemics.  Could it be that God lovingly desires to draw America back to a greater trust and obedience to Him through the pandemic? 

God’s Spirit and His Word revealed in Scripture cause us to humbly repent of our sin.  Of course the invitation to repentance stated in 2 Chronicles 7: 14 is very appropriate as we seek God’s face on behalf of our nation at this troubled time:  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Realistic Outlook
Repentance leads to cleansing from confessed sin, restored fellowship with God, and the clearer vision needed in difficult times.  Every day, many lives are spared by the herculean efforts of those listed in (c) above, functioning within an amazing social structure and enabled by a sovereign God.  However, in reality, people still die for various causes including what we call “accidents” (est. 169,936 deaths/year).  Nothing like a pandemic to help us realize the limited human ability to produce perfect outcomes, even when battling such a tiny, invisible enemy as a virus.  Death is inevitable for us all.

The likelihood of a person dying from a COVID-19 infection depends upon his or her health, particularly the condition of their immune system and respiratory system.  By analogy, violent wind passing through a forest usually does not equally damage and fell all the trees.  The older trees with weakened roots and trunks due to prior storm or lightning damage, internal infection, or decay, are most likely to be toppled or otherwise damaged. 

Like the wind passing through a forest, every pandemic operates by natural selection to cause greater mortality among those predisposed to the disease because of their age, genetic deficiencies, nutritional deficiencies, prior accidental injuries, or history of prior moral choices that had promoted or diminished physical and emotional health.  Some ethnic minorities experience higher mortality due to a history of discrimination and unfortunate moral choices that lead to disrupted family structure, poor education, and lack of spiritual development. 

Considering that death is inevitable and that any human population includes a wide range of susceptibility to, in this case, COVID-19, the question should be as follows: “In an attempt to protect as many people as possible from COVID-19 infection, how strict can a policy of social isolation be without weakening the entire population by causing socioeconomic disruption and physical-emotional effects that lead to increased addiction, crime, and deaths?

The table above reveals the seemingly inevitable high mortality due to influenza during most years, and particularly from the Swine Flu (H1N1) in 2009-2010.  Although Swine Flu caused a much higher case load of infections and hospitalizations than COVID-19 has to date, the response to the threat of Swine Flu did not include imposed social isolation leading over 22 million jobless claims (to date).

As of this writing, it is clear that President Trump and his team, and the nation’s governors need much discernment as they establish policy that limits deaths from COVID-19 infections without increasing deaths indirectly resulting from social isolation and disruption of our economy.

Informed Discernment
Difficult times test our faith.  We need to be informed of both current events and grounded in God’s Word.  These two disciplines can help us to exercise what I will call “informed discernment” to make wise decisions.  When I was employed by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, my laboratory chief would say, “You will always make the best decisions from the point of maximum information.”  Now, I will add, “having the best quality information.”  Here are some areas needing our discernment as American citizens in regard to policies on COVID-19:

(a)  News sources should report events with objectivity.  They should separate commentary from objective reporting of the news.  With the rapidity of news cycles, good news analysis includes timelines of unfolding events—e.g. the decisions and actions toward COVID-19 from December, 2019 to the present.  Who knew what, and said what, and when?  How have opinions changed?  Who was correct from the beginning, even when receiving opposition.

(b)  Scientific data and statistics:  I have already written of the importance of “good science.”

(c)  Responsible parties behind the COVID-19 pandemic need to be identified.  Why did the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese Communist leadership fail to lead with information that might have avoided the pandemic?  Some are recommending a stiff economic retribution for China.  But we need to consider how any penalty aimed at the tyrannical Chinese Communist leaders will indirectly affect the innocent Chinese people.

(d)  Scriptural ethics and understanding of the need to protect our 1^st Amendment right to privacy in any strategy to defeat the virus. For example, should personal smartphone tracking be used to track the spread of COVID-91?

(e)  Worship services been altered by social distancing policies. What are we learning from alternative approaches to “corporate worship” that can positively affect our worship afterwards?  The same is true of how we educate, how we do health care, and how we maintain our personal health. (e.g. preventive medicine).

(f)  Our view of death, pain, and suffering (physical and emotional) needs to be brought under the authority and insights of God’s Word.  For example, Jesus said, In the world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer.  I have overcome the world (John 16: 33).  In 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul wonderfully addresses the realities of the present world and the promise of Eternal Life:
  i.    Ruler of this world (Satan) has blinded us (1 Corinthians 4: 3-4).
  ii.   Christ-followers are to be light and salt (v. 5-7).
  iii.  Christ-followers will suffer affliction (v. 8-15; Luke 21: 12-13).
  iv.  But we do not lose heart for very good reason (v. 16-18).
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8: 37).

Intercession in Prayer
If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?”
The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven… - Psalm 11: 3-4a

Historically, during times of trouble, men and women of faith have prayed to God on behalf of their own personal sin and the sin of their nation.  Here are several examples from God’s Word:  Psalm 51, Psalm 130, and Isaiah 6: 1-7 involve individual repentance; Daniel 9: 1-19 which is Daniel’s intercessory prayer for his nation; and the Apostle John’s call to repentance in 1 John 1: 5-10.

How should we pray?  Here are some prayer promptings that Abby and I are using, and that I have been using with a virtual prayer “meeting” with several men of our church:
(a)  Churches and their Pastors as they lead efforts to proclaim Truth and maintain the local body. 
(b)  People – that their hearts will be open to God’s Word, active in ministering to the needy.
(c)  Missionaries—to powerfully present the Gospel during times of opportunity
(d)  Government leaders— for humble submission to God’s wisdom in important decisions
(e)  Medical professionals— for renewed stamina, wisdom, professionalism, and compassion
(f)   Personal opportunities to assist materially, emotionally, and spiritually in this unique period.

What Do You Think?
If you’d like to leave a question or comment, please use the “Comment” link below.  Or, you may contact me at silviusj@cedarville.edu.