Ephesians 5.15-17
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
I want to share some insights as our nation and the world struggle to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Obviously, I am not an ER doctor, nor am I a virologist or specialist in epidemiology. However, like everyone else, I must decide what to do in response to the threat of this highly infectious pathogen that is spreading around the world and causing major disruptions in financial markets, travel, business operations, and our daily lives.
Unfortunately, there is an abundance of foolishness and fear being peddled by people driven by various agendas. There is also a great deal of uncertainty and misinformation, all of which is producing confusion and feeding the fear. That kind of reaction only makes an already difficult and dangerous situation worse.
The truth of God’s word teaches this: The people of God should respond with wisdom and faith, not with foolishness and fear. That is the core message in the Ephesians passage above: “See clearly and act wisely” it tells us. The instruction to see and act with wisdom is especially important when “the days are evil.” For added emphasis the passage admonishes: “Don’t be foolish. Know your God and know his principles.”
This is also the point of 2 Corinthians 5.6-7, where the apostle writes: “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.” This is not an admonition to live blindly and naively. To the contrary, it is an admonition to see clearly and accurately enlightened by the truth of scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a call to see the realities of life that the eyes of doubt and fear do not see.
We teach this same timeless truth in R Factor training: Clarity of vision drives quality of response. In other words, how clearly you see the realities of the situation determines how effectively you respond to it. Perception drives action.
How does this apply to the COVID-19 situation?
First, don’t react based on impulse. Instead, press pause and gain clarity. Think. Pray. Seek to understand the reality of the situation, and ask the Lord for wisdom and discernment. Your first reaction is rarely your best response. This is especially true with difficult, emotionally-charged situations. If you don’t press pause to gain clarity, your perception will narrow, and your thinking will get hijacked by emotional impulse.
Second, in order to expand your perspective and see the situation with greater clarity and courage, ask yourself the following five questions.
- What is the reality of the situation?
- What do I not see that I need to see?
- What do I see but am discounting?
- What am I pretending not to see?
- How do others see the situation?
As you ask these questions, pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom to see with clarity and courage.
I will share more tomorrow and throughout this week, but I leave you today with the encouragement to avoid two extremes. The first is pessimistic cynicism, the other is naive optimism.
There are cynics who view the CV19 pandemic through a negative lens, and who seem to want it to be catastrophic. Because of their cynical frame, they distort the data, hype every piece of negative information, and fixate on the worst case scenarios. Many of the cynics are driven by a political agenda and are using the pathogen crisis to attack their political opponents. Candidly, I find this reprehensible.
The other end of the spectrum are people who are naively optimistic about CV19. “It’s not really a problem,” they say. “People are overreacting. It’s not really a threat. It’s just another version of the flu.” Not only is this perspective misinformed, it is also terribly irresponsible and dangerous. CV19 is not the same as the flu, and it has the potential to spread faster and be far more deadly.
The bottom is that there is much we don’t know about the virus. Medical experts around the world are feverishly gathering data to better understand CV19, specialists are working hard to develop testing kits and treatments, companies are gearing up to produce ventilators, and hospitals are kicking into overdrive to prepare and expand facilities and capabilities.
In the meantime, we are being asked to minimize social contact and be vigilant about hand-washing and other common-sense preventive measures. And we all know about the temporary shut-down of business conferences and sporting events. These measures are being implemented to prevent or mitigate a sudden spike in the number of infections that would be too large for hospitals and medical supplies to handle.
Let us trust our God and respond with wisdom. Let’s work together to defeat this virus. Do not contribute to the confusion and chaos. As the Surgeon General Jerome Adams told the media on Saturday, “No more criticism and finger pointing. We don’t need stories looking back at what happened in the past.” We must focus forward, and learn and respond and make corrections as we move ahead. We can look back at what went wrong after CV19 has been contained.
This is not the first time the global community has been threatened by a virus, and it won’t be the last. Let’s get this one under control and learn from it so we will be better prepared the next time it happens.
