How Not to Be Afraid of the Coronavirus
The global spread of the coronavirus has a lot of us scared.
Some people are rushing to stores to purchase non-perishables and buy facemasks that don’t help. Some are buying up all the hand sanitizer they can find. Others are indifferent to the virus altogether.
How should we respond?
RESPONDING TO BAD NEWS
The current facts are that COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019, has resulted in the loss of over three thousand lives. We should mourn those losses and pray for those who are most affected. My family is praying for China in particular and for the world in general each morning.
However, the fatality rate is just over three percent. In other words, the overwhelming majority of those who contract the coronavirus survive. According to metrics compiled by Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, 51,000 of the 94,000 infected have already recovered. Despite the increase in cases, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says, “We can push this virus back.”
But what if we can’t stop the virus? What if it becomes widespread in the United States, as some epidemiologists predict?
Psalm 112 is a good guide to how we should respond:
“For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid” (Ps. 112:6–8).
Bad news is coming for all of us. If it’s not the virus, it will be something else. We live in a fallen world where suffering and death are inevitable. To live as if this is not true is foolish. The wise and righteous person, however, need not fear bad news.
“It’s one thing to pay attention to bad news, to mourn tragic events; it’s another to live in anxious fear of what could happen.”
It’s one thing to pay attention to bad news, to mourn tragic events; it’s another to live in anxious fear of what could happen. Psalm 112 shows us it is possible to look bad news in the face and say, “You will not rule my heart.” This means the outbreak of the coronavirus is an occasion to choose faith over fear.
Our emotions may sway, but the righteous person is not blown off course. How?
A FIRM HEART
A righteous person’s trust is not in good news, pleasant circumstances, or the avoidance of suffering and death. Instead, their trust is in the Lord.
Suffering, or the prospect of suffering, has a way of revealing where we actually place our trust—good health, financial security, a happy marriage, and so on. But when those things are threatened, the cracks begin to appear in our unreliable foundation.
“Suffering, or the prospect of suffering, has a way of revealing where we actually place our trust.”
However, the more we investigate the character of God, the more deeply convinced we can be that he is good, and that he works good through bad. That is unshakable.
In fact, Romans 8:28 tells us that God works “all things” together for the good of those who love him. This means every imaginable pain or sorrow will be bent and shaped by the hands of Providence to accomplish a good that could never be achieved otherwise.
Who can offer such a rock-solid promise? Only the Lord our God. And because of that, our hearts can be steady.
SERVING IN THE FACE OF FEAR
What might a steady heart, unafraid of bad news, look like amidst the coronavirus? Consider our Chinese brothers and sisters. Apparently, faith-based giving has exploded in China over the past ten years, with Protestants giving $10 million dollars to alleviate suffering.
In fact, Christians in China are giving so generously to help those infected with the coronavirus that the government has turned away their funds, lest churches make the government appear incompetent. It’s reported that Chinese Christians aren’t holing up in their homes but are tending to the sick and distributing care.
Now, that’s loving one another with brotherly affection and outdoing one another in honor (Rom. 12:10)!
So, while we have to navigate the feelings of fear, we need not place our trust in circumstances or prognostications. Our trust is rightly placed in the Lord because God is good—“all the time”—as my poor, famine-facing Ugandan friends taught me.
“All the time.”
Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv, ThM) is the founding pastor of City Life Church in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Our Good Crisis, Here in Spirit, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, and The Unbelievable Gospel. He enjoys listening to M. Ward, smoking his pipe, watching sci-fi, and going for walks. You can find more at jonathandodson.org.