The Paceline

How many of today’s blogs have that title during this COVID-19 pandemic? So much for this being an original post.

Our current plague is not original. It’s just new to all of us right now. There are a few alive today who lived through the flu pandemic 100 years ago. (probably not the bookends they prefer for their lives)

Thucydides wrote of the great plague of Athens in 430 BC. My bible mentions “plague” 54 times. This is nothing new.

The uncertainty we now feel may be much less than that felt long, long ago. But it’s still uncertainty. It is nothing new.

Just because we have more, know more, and expect better results because of advancements in science and medical care does not necessarily mean we have less uncertainty. We may have more.

Uncertainty creates various levels of anxiety, aka fear. Do we have more of that? We certainly have more newscasters and pundits telling us what to fear today. The news is available to us all day, everyday, everywhere. It’s easy to saturate with fear.

Yet fear is not always bad. Bad fear can paralyze action or frustrate rest and recovery. But good fear can warn, protect, teach, motivate, and help us prepare. Some people – not all – are able to choose bad fear or good fear.

According to the bible, fear has been around a while. My bible mentions “fear not” 71 times. As a follower of Jesus, my worldview confirms that fear is something to be reckoned with historically and spiritually. It implies to me that I can choose bad fear or good fear based on a promise to fear not.

We live in uncertain times. That will never change. This current pandemic will end, but uncertainty will remain in some other form.

Our choices will also remain. We can choose a worldview. And we can choose fear (bad fear) or faith (good fear).

Psalm 30:5 reads “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

I don’t know how long this pandemic night will last, but I do know that morning is coming. Fear not.