Baseball’s cheating headlines suddenly pale in comparison to the Coronavirus scare. I haven’t seen anything like this in my lifetime, even during SARS or the Swine Flu years, where death was a very real possibility.  I am approaching an age where pneumonia can be a life-threatening event, so I am not naive enough to think there is no danger.  But wow, have we reacted.  Our economy is in great danger of the greatest instant shutdown I have ever seen.  Don’t get me wrong, I am on board with what our collective governments and healthcare agencies are doing to help stop this evil in its tracks.

The word panic comes to mind when thinking of all the suspensions, cancellations, quarantines and so on over this virus. But the scarier part of this are the unknowns. What now?  What next? How long?

When “crisis” occurs in our lives, how should we not react? 

It’s now clear that COVID-19 is a deadly serious global pandemic, and all necessary precautions should be taken. Still, C. S. Lewis’s words—written 72 years ago when writing about the atomic bomb—ring with some relevance for us. Just replace “atomic bomb” with “coronavirus.”

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 over a pint and a game of darts—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.”

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

C.S. Lewis’ comments were not intended to ignore the threat of the time, but to not panic and do what was needed to continue living.  After all, the wisest man of all time, Solomon said “This too shall pass”.  The extraordinary efforts being put forth will hopefully expedite the passing of this crisis. And what is the worst thing that can happen?  We could all die.  Well, newsflash… that is going to happen someday.

So, should we function with fear and panic or faith and practicality? Here are some ways that we should not react:

With anxiety and worry
With hopelessness about the future
With anger and bitterness
Make rash and unhealthy decisions
Think that we are helpless

When these behaviors occur, they can become a lifestyle and that can destroy us. Instead, here are three things that we can do to find encouragement during these times:

Draw near to God. When the storm hits, find God in the storm!
Hold fast to hope that this too shall pass. Take a firm grip on the rope of hope and don’t let go!
Encourage one another. Let go of biases that turn to bitterness and show some love. Connect with each other.  If too busy to connect, you are simply too busy!

If you can look up, you can get up. If flat on your back the only way to look is up. If you ain’t dead, you ain’t done!

“Together we will reduce density and slow the spread of Coronavirus,” NY governor Cuomo said in a statement.  Sounds like a plan! Together being the operative word!