Coronavirus and living with a clear and present anxiety

As we straddle the fear of the unknown with the ability to quell that fear the living words of the Bible and our faith, we must admit that we’re holding the tensions of faith that chooses calm with the temptation to panic.

We’re all only a few snippets of information away from panicking, because we care so much about our lives and the lives of those we love and care about.

I know it’s easy to say, “Don’t be afraid, cast all your cares on God!”  This is precisely why we read our Bibles; to be reminded of these very things.  If we were never fearful and we were never given to panic, we wouldn’t need all those reminders in the God’s word to be calm in a crisis.

We’re all getting used to an elevated sense of anxiety and those levels won’t diminish at all for some time.  Too many lives that we care about depend on us being hypervigilant.

None of us can stop caring, and even if we had the choice, would we?  No, it’s love that compels us to worry, and yet in worrying, we’re given ascent to a better way, “Don’t be anxious about anything,” it says in Philippians 4:6, “but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God...”

We’re told that in being anxious we have ascent to a better way.  Paul doesn’t say, “You will never be anxious,” but he says, “Here, do something about it.”

God knows we’ll be anxious, and I suspect God understands that the motive of our anxiety is love.

We’re anxious of the losses we may experience.  We’re anxious for the uncertainty of these times — the virus, yes, but all the economic uncertainties, too.  We’re anxious for the future when it seems that a ‘normal’ 2019 was a long time ago.  We just don’t know what to think and feel if we’re honest.  It’s healthier to throw our hands in the air and say, “God’s in control,” because God is.

Anxiety for what dominates the News, for what we’ll be greeted by tomorrow, for the uncertain shopping experience, and for being without for some of the first times of our lives.

One thing for sure, we live in a different time than we did even 50 days ago.

Times like these, all the more, we need to open our Bibles and read.  For an encouragement to calmness amid fear, I commend you to this:

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”— Exodus 14:14

Photo by Finn on Unsplash