Do Your Part. Trust Jesus. Don’t Be Afraid.

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a manager in a local business. He described how terrified some of his employees are of the Coronavirus and the things he was having to do to keep them calm and coming to work. 

I know that this will mark me as one of the goofiest people around, but it honestly had not occurred to me to be afraid of either the virus or the threat of economic meltdown which we are facing. I saw these things as problems that we do what we can to either avoid or survive, and if we don’t survive, well then, we go to heaven. 

But afraid? It honestly didn’t occur to me. 

It’s not that I can’t get scared. I’m scared of all sorts of things.  Maybe my long years of dealing with problems as problems has sort of trained me to respond in a certain way. I don’t know. I only know that, while I clearly see the combination of the virus and the economy as an impending threat to life as we know it,  it didn’t occur to me to be afraid of the situation we’re now in. 

Now that I see how frightened some people are, a lot of things make sense to me. (I know. I’m dense.) So that’s why people were buying all the toilet paper and bottled water. They were panicked. 

Given my newfound understanding that people are actually panic-mode, visceral afraid of this thing, I want to try to address that. I’m not sure how much I can help, since I’m obviously out of sync with everybody else. But here’s my take on it for what it’s worth. 

There’s no reason to be afraid. 

We are in a perilous situation. On the one hand, we are threatened with a virus that can break down our medical care systems and kill a lot of people, especially older people. On the other hand, our momentum-driven economy is trying to implode and go into free fall. 

Those are serious problems. We can, by judicious behavior, do a lot to ameliorate the threat of the virus. We can slow its spread and bring its transmission down simply by staying home and watching tv. 

The economy is not in our hands. You and I can do nothing about the economy. We’re like kids in the backseat of the car, along for the ride. 

The truth is, all the things all the governments of all the world are doing to shore up the economy will ultimately fail if we don’t restore economic momentum. But you and I can’t fix it. All we can do is stay home and not spread this virus and pray that we get a vaccine that will knock it out in time to avoid a total economic crash. 

So, why worry? Why be afraid? 

I’m really not the blithering idiot that makes me sound like. I just see the limits of me. I can’t worry this thing away. I can’t fix it by being afraid. 

More important, I really do trust God. 

I don’t mean that in some sappy Hallmark card way. I mean it in a been-there, done-that, lived experience kind of way. Jesus Christ is real. He will never desert you. Period. 

I am a firm believer in doing what you can. I believe in doing my part, whatever that part may be. 

I’m writing about this with as much honesty as I can because I can do that. If it does even one person some good, then I’ve succeeded in what I was trying to accomplish. If it doesn’t do any good, I’ve still done my part. 

I pray about it and I am staying home. If I see that it’s time to do something more, I will do that something more. 

I do my part. 

You should do your part. 

And part of your part includes keeping your head, staying calm and trusting Jesus. 

Know the limits of you. Do what you can. And stop worrying about what you can’t. 

Don’t be afraid. You are an immortal being. You cannot die.