Combating Worry & Fear When Coronavirus Comes to Your Town

The whole world is looking at Washington. My hometown, just twenty-minutes south from where I live, sparking the very first U.S. case of an epidemic now on everyone’s radar.

As of six minutes ago, five deaths were reported in Washington State. Four minutes ago, the number rose to six.

Grocery stores are cleared out of hand santizer, toilet paper, medicine and every necessity is gathered in case we need to endure house confinement, to keep the virus from spreading.

As I rise at 5:20 a.m. my mind slowly awakens, face deep in Scripture. “Worry”, “merimnao”, Strong’s # 3309 in Greek.

WORRY = “to divide into parts”. The word suggests distraction, preoccupation with things causing anxiety, stress, and pressure.

Have you been distracted by the news, the numbers, the scientists warnings?

A divided mind is a defeated mind. A distracted life-style equals an unproductive people.

I go straight to the Parable about the Sower. Seed gets scattered but the “cares of this world”…the worry and proccupation, and concerns of the day…choke out what the good seed was planted to produce.

“Others are like the seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word, but the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things coke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” ~ Mark 4:18-19  

How often have you or I heard truth? Felt a call or a pull, been led by a nudge or God prompting? But then others opinions, daily obligations, earthly concerns, lies about your qualifications or sufficiency come up and snatch that God-dream straight out of our hearts?

The Bible gives us examples of people concerned with their own worries, (i.e. wealth or safety). Many pass by the call, missing God opportunities.

And I don’t want to be like them, do you? Riddled with worry, divided in mind. Here is an example of a few:

• The Rich Young Ruler prefered his wealth to Jesus purposes. (Mark 10:17-27)
• King Saul worried about his safety, more than the command of God given through the prophet Samuel. (1 Samuel 15)
• Judas longed for money more than the protection of the man who had been teaching him for 3 1/2 years.  (Luke 22)
• Jonah was too worried about his own physical safety in a city like Ninevah. He ended up getting swallowed by a whale. (Jonah 3)
• Naomi worried more about what she lost than what was ahead for her, so much so she changed her name to “bitter”. (Ruth 1)

Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down.”

And how many times have you or I been worried, double-minded, pulled or distracted from this call God has for us? How many times have we listened to what others said; (i.e. statistics, probability or the latest news reminding us of the frailty of our own lives?)

My son just packed for Europe and is on his way to the airport as I write this. My daughter is already there with her husband. The three will meet and adventures won’t stop because some virus is paralizing many in their tracks.

We can live wild and bold because we as believers know, life doesn’t end when we take our last breath. It ends when we let fear and worry paralize us from His purposes.

We die or fail to thrive when we let fear petrify us from the calling God has on our lives. 

Rumors and fears will always rise, but they don’t need to strangle us from the full, single-focused call He created us for, from the beginnning of time.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled” Jesus reminds us in John 14:1.

If Christ is raised from the dead, do sickness and even death have any kind of grip on us?

Life or death, angels or demons, present of future, nor any powers, neither high or low or anything in creation, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

We don’t need to live captive or as slaves to worry and fear. Christ is in us. No more double-minded chidren frozen with an inability to move forward.

Christ in us, the hope of glory. He is the hope of the world. So let’s live unshaken and different from those who isolate in trepidation.

“Do not be troubles and do not be afraid.” Peace He lives with us. And at the end of the day, His peace is so much greater than anything this world promises. (John 14:27)