Now that the Coronavirus has been declared a pandemic, many find themselves at the mercy of fear and anxiety. It’s certainly understandable to an extent. After all, we have been inundated these last few months with an endless stream of both information and misinformation regarding COVID-19 that has now turned into a veritable flood.
To be sure, the virus is deserving of a healthy dose of concern and we ought to proceed with caution at this juncture. However, the rising tide of panic amid a variety of wild forebodings ought to remain the major source of apprehension for us.
It seems all the odd prognosticators are coming out of the woodworks to declare all manner of strange claims. Some are even misusing scripture to declare the end is nigh. They are rifling through any and all religious passages to bolster such silly pronouncements.
Never mind that such an exegetical pursuit is a deductive fallacy of sorts that only reckless extremists of all ilk love to make, it also goes against the very foundation of faith itself. Faith inspires us toward meaningful hope and an ability to endure with grace the hardships that befall us. Humility, not hubris, is its benchmark.
Faith is not some tool we employ to prophesize about the future in a reckless manner or, worse, use to speak in God’s stead, especially in times of crises, great and small. At the risk of Polly Anna proclamations, faith reminds us to remain steadfast, even-keeled, trust God, and look to be of service to our neighbors no matter who they are or what they believe. That is an inherently American ideal rooted in the enterprise of faith.
Not to be outdone, many progressives are doubling down on their secular pretensions to declare the sky is falling as well amid the current pandemic. Panic has become both a cheap form of political currency and a kind of dogma for many on the Left. It’s strange and comical to witness them try to save the world with nothing save histrionics at their disposal.
They continue to declare war on hamburgers and plastic straws among so many other trivialities in the name of so-called progress. It’s as though they’re hell-bent on summoning the final despondent lines from T.S. Eliot’s masterful poem, ‘The Hollow Men”:
“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
The truth is, the current pandemic is just the way the world spins, not the way it ends. Trials and tribulations on an individual and on a societal level are often the orders of the day. Sadly, war, famine, and disease are mainstays of the human condition. Just a cursory glance at the entire history of the world confirms this beyond a shadow of a doubt. This world was never meant to be a utopia or some form of paradise.
I’d be remiss though if I didn’t share my own personal fears and apprehensions on the current crisis. I mean, the Lakers were atop the Western Conference and poised for a legitimate run at another championship after a long drought. That run may be for naught now that the NBA has rather wisely suspended all games for the time being.
Forgive my attempt at some much-needed levity. In all seriousness, my most pressing concern remains for the elderly, including my own parents. God willing, we will come together as a nation devoid of fatiguing partisan lunacy as we’ve done innumerable times in the past and find our way out of this pandemic stronger than ever.