How Will Corona Effect You?

This virus which causes us to cover our faces, and hide in our rooms seems a little bi-polar to me. It’s  providing the world right now, with both the antagonist and protagonist of the story, the hero in some ways and the villain in other ways. I suppose it depends on who you speak to? To this woman, the pandemic is an enemy, she is distressed, fear plagues her, perhaps she will get sick or is sick. She could die, does she have a small child at home? Perhaps she is concerned, will she pass it on to an elderly parent or a sick lover?

Perhaps the mere knowledge, has suddenly struck her, that the world is in fact a fragile and small planet created for death and new life,  good and evil.

The virus itself is a hijacker of healthy cells, making people sick, causing the death ticker to rise rapidly on every public news station and website available, yet the human response has created a wave of benefits to the population.

One world. One virus. One people. One cause. This, for many of us is the prophecy which has threatened since childhood. The One world Order. Now here it is within our purview. Good or evil? Is this world war III, not a war with guns or armored men, and not against one another, but against a power that few of mankind has experienced before? A power with enough strength to break down racial barriers, and cultural differences, gender roles, and religious conflicts. Every person is susceptible, this virus is color blind.   Suddenly the lines of distinction are fading.  No more walls divide countries, we all fight the same enemy, Covid-19, we all seem to have pitched our tents in the same battlefield. We all joined unintentionally on searching for a cure, a vaccine and a recovery plan. We are all racing to make enough medical supplies, masks and ventilators and to post numbers, and save one another.  The world in fact, might be on pause and every one of us has given approval as we study growing numbers of sick people and make press conferences a new priority. We are all in this together. Weird. We have all taken similar measures in protecting ourselves, and right now we are learning from one another. Close schools, work from home, empty shopping plazas, cancel religion and separate, but we’ve never been more globally connected.

We as a whole planet, no matter where we live or what we claim,  get to re-consider,  re-evaluate, and re-pent. We will have the opportunity to re-create once we emerge. So beneficial, it almost sounds planned.

It’s ironic that in our separation we are united. While corona is the “greatest enemy” ever experienced, because of its highly contagious spread rate , it has simultaneously been a friend to some.  it simply cannot therefore be all bad or all good.  How will corona effect you? Where do you stand? Why do you hide yourself? How has it changed your reality and has it been good or evil?

Corona has made us live differently. What does it really mean to live differently? Covid-19 has afforded us the opportunity to take time and asses life. It has divided some things while uniting others. What really makes me happy? Am I putting my energy and efforts into the proper things, peoples and events? This virus,  or at least the response to it,  has brought countries together and families together; while insisting on social distancing it has also encouraged human closeness and compassion. How many finally found that hour to read with your child,  how many have had a meal together this week without racing off to sporting events. We have quite suddenly found our way back in time where life was a little slower. How does that resonate? While banning us from restaurants and outlawing business and shopping it has encouraged us to  healthier lifestyles; eating homemade bread and spending less money, daily walks and family bike rides. While filling us with fear and anxiety it also released us from the anxiety that busy and over scheduled calendars have previously incurred upon us. No longer are we pulled away from things that really matter. Will it effect us all in positive ways? I suppose this is where the divide will begin to form once again.

While saying no more church, it has also provided worshipers to arise outside the white steeple, and the golden temples, likely what Jesus, Muhammad and Gandhi, really had in mind. No more weddings, funerals or play-dates, yet we find new ways to connect, to love each other,  to worship. Are we awake yet, are we stirred to change and are we thirsty for new life?

Without our permission the corona virus, conducted an experiment, the human corona experiment. Can we walk away from this super bug, knowing better how we ought to live? When all things we once valued blindly are deemed prohibited and closed, what will we do? Find something else, something better, a new and more beneficial way? when some lose their jobs or businesses what will the result be? What will the Chinese do? What will the American’s do? The Africans? Israel? How will the Europeans handle this? The Italians, what will they find comfort in? Who will survive and why? Who will thrive economically socially, relationally, financially. How will we each respond differently in the face of this or will we move forward as one new world? Like a tail or  appendix, will social integration fall off the ever evolving man. Is this all an experiment to see if man can survive solely on the internet with little to no community? and what will that world look like? Are we really so quick to give up our neighbors? How will corona shift humanity and do we have a say? How has it become the catalyst, which ten years from now either brought great sorrow and death or a much-needed new life and transformation to societies? Like a cold December or a rainy April, it effects things to come and it might not be a terrible thing, it might just be a life thing.

Covid-19 might not bring be war world III, but it certainly has the world’s united and undivided attention, and it may mimic a war with its casualties and victories and we may emerge stronger or defeated. Maybe its even motivating us to redefine words and concepts such as war and enemy, good and evil.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

God, who created all things, who made the sun and the moon and the stars, and put up boundaries for the mountains and waves, He called light from the darkness, and life from the dead. He watches the beasts give birth and feeds the birds of the sky in season and out. He loves perfectly, died completely, and sees all clearly. This God works all things , even viruses, together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. So that in the end his good purposes prevail over the earth.