As we wait through the panic and growing stresses associated with the Chinese Coronavirus, some are coming to the realization that things may never get back to normal in America.
There’s a deep despair coming over many who know their funds are growing short and their cupboards are becoming bare. But there’s hope on the horizon. In fact, there are several reasons for Americans to be encouraged not only by what our representatives in government are doing but also in the way we’re reacting to this crisis.
It’s very easy to look around and see the negatives. A growing number of Americans have become so jaded and uncaring that we believe the status quo is political polarization, religious indifference, and cultural outrage. Perhaps, just maybe, this pandemic is exactly what we needed in order to break from the trend of divisiveness that has engulfed our nation for years.
Perhaps, just maybe, this is the wake up call we’ve needed for so long.
Now is the time to come together… by being apart. It seems like a contradiction at first, but time is both the great healer and the promoter of decadence. For too long, the only things that have been healing are our combative nature towards those we oppose and scars we’ve accumulated through battles over our differences. For too long, the only thing that has been decaying is the sense of unity that once made America so strong.
News reports are loaded with doom and gloom, but what they’re not telling you is we’re face-to-face with an unambiguous opportunity to fight this invisible foe as a nation. In many ways, this is the type of unifying event we’ve needed for a while. We must be unified in our actions of avoiding each other, of preventing further contractions of this disease through isolation. It sounds like an oxymoron, unifying in solidarity through solitude, but if we stop and think about it, this may have been the only way for a unified goal to have been presented to a polarized society.
There is plenty of ugliness happening around us. Some of us have participated. We’ve felt glee in grabbing the last few packages of hand sanitizer even as we knew we probably wouldn’t use it all. We knew by taking the last bottles there was someone else who may have needed it, but we took it nonetheless. We’re seeing guns and ammunition flying off the shelves, and while we may support the 2nd Amendment wholeheartedly, it’s concerning to know that some intend to use these weapons not to protect their families but to be ready to take from others if the situation continues to deteriorate. The world seems to be turning towards self-protection above all things, and that’s an ugly position for us to be in. But like I said before, there’s hope. We have to believe that because it’s necessary for us to make it through this crisis. We have to believe that because it’s true.
Mainstream media is bent on making the coronavirus pandemic as bad as possible. It isn’t just that fear sells news better than hope, but more importantly the media has political foes they want to destroy. The coronovirus is, from their perspective, a much better angle to pursue for their political purposes than Russian hoaxes or impeachment debacles. The coronavirus may or may not be an existential threat to America, but mainstream media is definitely going to push for it to do as much political damage as possible.
Yet even in their unhinged desires to see harm done to their political foes even if it causes harm to innocent Americans, we can still find hope. That hope comes in the form or redemption. When we beat the coronavirus—and we will beat the coronavirus—we can look back and add the media’s attempts to damage this nation to their body of anti-American work. We can hang it like an albatross about their necks as a reminder that they put their political agenda above the well-being of the nation that makes their jobs possible.
We are seeing hope coming from our government. I know, it’s hard to see through all of the negative reporting, but at nearly every level and across the political spectrum we’re seeing the right decisions made. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with them. It doesn’t mean that all of them are correct. It doesn’t even mean that their motivations for making these moves are honorable. But the fact that everyone is government is focused on finding solutions is heartening. It’s hopeful. In many ways, I can say it’s unexpected as we have grown so accustomed to politicians making purely political decisions. Regarding the coronavirus, the decisions have generally been righteous.
I can already see people reading that and shaking their heads, but that’s the politics speaking. If we take the politics out of it, we’ll see that generally speaking, the right moves are being made in this regard. Sure, we can point to Nancy Pelosi trying to sneak in abortion funding into the first coronavirus aid bill and condemn her for it, but the bill itself is a testament to Capitol Hill’s desires to make things right. Is it wrong to close everything down in ways that harm the economy and prevent people from getting paychecks? Yes. But if those same people went to work and caught a life-threatening disease, what good is the paycheck other than covering their funeral expenses?
Now is not the time to second-guess decisions. It’s a time for unity, and the best way we can express that unity is by helping where we can and otherwise avoiding contact with others. We can beat this. We’re Americans. Help those who need it, do what we can to preserve our health and the health of those for whom we are charged, and buckle down for a few weeks. That’s what’s required. If we can do this as individuals and families while allowing government and the private sector to contend with logistics of this disease, we can emerge in a few weeks with this disease licked.
That’s the hope that’s within us, but there’s an even greater hope that must shine through. I am a Bible-believing, sinful man, but I know there is an eternal hope that covers me. I do not fear the coronavirus, nor do I fear the turmoil that will arise if we do not get a handle on this soon. If this coronavirus gets out of control despite our best efforts as individuals within the greatest nation in the world, then it was meant be. And therein lies the greatest hope that’s within us. The end is a new beginning for those who believe on Jesus Christ and repent for our sins. Even as we fight for this world, for our nation, for our family, and for ourselves, we mustn’t forget that no matter how bad it gets, we have wonders ahead of us that will make the pain and suffering of this world obsolete.
Nevertheless, we’re here today. We must fight. We must persevere until that’s no longer possible. Thankfully, as we can come together as a nation, even in our solitude, we can beat this thing that has plagued us.
And perhaps, just maybe, we can be stronger as a people when it’s all said and done.
