As more Minnesota businesses area allowed to reopen this Monday, my fear is that there will be this sense of complacency where people will forget the unseen dangers of this virus and social distance less, practice less those hygiene habits the CDC ingrained in us to remember to do, and unknowingly spread this dangerous virus to others who do. The people featured in this video are real. They share one common trait which is they died of the Corona virus- a virus that is constantly mutating and effects different people in different ways.
All of us are lamenting the loss of profits from our 401k, pensions, and our savings accounts, and certainly we feel the pain of those who lost their jobs through this ordeal. This pain is very real-my eyes are wet at night thinking of those impacted. While I wish I could wave a magic wand to make this virus be gone, I cannot. Until they come up with a vaccine to eradicate this dastardly thing, the corona virus is here to say, and for that matter, we have to learn the art of hand washing, social distancing, and be satisfied with wearing masks where social distancing isn't possible.
What concerns me even more than this corona virus is man's greed. Our emotions seem to ebb and flow depending on the ascending/descending arrow of the New York Stock exchange. Our sense of security, it seems, is linked to the amount of money we have.
In 1 Timothy 6:10 the writer says these things about money: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
One look at the past lottery winners bears this out when one discovers many of these lottery winners eventually became worse off as soon as they lost their 'wealth'.
People were even more concerned about where they could buy their alcohol in this shutdown than advocating to find a way to have Churches reopen with social distancing guidelines in place. Not to my surprise there was a surge in people requesting alcohol treatment and we saw a surge in domestic abuse calls shortly after liquor stores were made essential.
In Romans, Paul has this to say about the wretchedness of sin, "21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Like Paul, each of us is in a waging war with greed. We desire to be good, but the attitudes that lurk in hearts say the opposite. Like Paul discovered, Jesus Christ is the only way to life's satisfaction. As we get older most become aware of the brevity of life. The news of this pandemic certainly upset everyone's sense of security. I was reminded by one person who posted, "I don't want to die" in her social media post and thinking she is not the only one with this fear.
While I cannot stop anyone from taking their final breath, I can offer you the faith I received when I was just a 18 year high school senior- it was a day I receive Christ as my Savior and Lord of my life- the day- the day I was assured of my eternal life in heaven should life come to a screeching halt. Just as I was assured of this you also can be simply by praying this prayer:
"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."
If you said this prayer, you have taken a major step that will lead you to greater peace and satisfaction with life in the face of economic uncertainty's and the anxiety over the pandemic.
I leave these words from Romans 8:39 which is a good reminder that God's son is walking with you through the storm: "neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
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