As I’m writing this I’m dressed in full hazmat precautions, with respirator mask and gown. Working as an ER nurse in the COVID containment tent that the hospital has set up in the ambulance parking lot. Everyone I greet with a smile even though they don’t see it through a veiled mask. The look in their eyes betrays a spirit of apprehension and fear. For good cause I would add, for this current microbe is a nasty little contagion that has put mighty superpowers of the world on its heels.
If the threat of pneumonia wasn’t bad enough however, the even worse virus of fear has spread even past the best isolation measures invented by man. On one hand, the masses are victims of both viruses and yet the preventative steps are to isolate each one from the other.
The paradox is fascinating to behold. The very thing we’re designed and prone to do is to come together, and yet it’s the very thing that can make us all sicker as human beings. It shall be interesting to see where this goes.
The viral fear is disseminated in seconds, no contact or cough required. It grips the heart and mind and sends me spiraling in confusion and panic. Disruption of the daily norms and all the things I take for granted, the even balance of control over my life, and now something that’s got nothing to do with me, as everything to do with me. Personally I’m not alarmed nor panicked, but the collective of humanity certainly is. How I behave and handle all of this as a Christian certainly matters a great deal.
Am I rooted in the truth that God is sovereign? Am I resting in His promises of watching over my life? Am I familiar with the faithful deliverance he’s not only brought me through in my own life but the countless times from scripture until now, where man has despaired only to see God bringing His good plans to rest on the objects of His steadfast love.
Do I remember? Am I reflecting on those truths? The peace that surpasses understanding is closer to me than my own breath, “I’m available, I’m near” He whispers to my heart. And in that pause, that still small voice, I discover the immense nature of a living God.
And life goes on in-spite of all this viral fear of microbes and pandemic panic. In the ER, heart attacks and strokes, and broken bones don’t pause for viral outbreaks. Nor does the cause of The Nest stop either I’m afraid. Little girls and boys are still enduring evil mistreatments, and my heart still reaches for the work to be down in Costa Rica to shelter and love them back to a life worth living. I rest on God for the cure of my own fears, those patients I meet each day, and the BriBri six thousand miles away. We may all be isolating these days, but God is always near, that promise comforts me on new and deeper levels especially in these uncertain times
Author: James Beach, Co-founder