Where is God in this Crisis?

As I was perusing the news articles this morning on my phone, the title of one piece caught my eye. It asked the question, “Where is God in a pandemic?” This is essentially the same question I have often been asked by the patients I have visited in my time as a Spiritual Care Volunteer at UCI Medical Center. “Where is God?” and “Why did God let this happen to me?”

His answer is always the same, “I’m right here.”

God hasn’t gone anywhere, as if He could be one place and not another. He is the ground and foundation of all existence. While He could exist without us or the rest of creation, we cannot exist without Him because we depend on Him like a sound wave depends on the air it moves through to exist. So, no, God hasn’t disappeared. He’s right here where he has always been and will always be.

So then, why is He letting this happen? Why is He letting this potentially lethal virus spread and kill people? Why is He letting the Stock Market crash? Why is He letting the world seemingly collapse around us?

The answer is simpler, and harder to take, than you might think. He will not interfere in our free will. He will not turn us into robots who always make the right decisions. It was, one way or the other, human decisions which caused the current global crisis all the way back to the caging and selling of the bats in which the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolved, to the human governments’ responses, to the responses of panicked buyers and sellers. This was all human decision making, not His, and He will not force us to do the right thing.

Frequently, God does damage control to keep things from getting as bad as they could. He does love us, He does care about us, and like any good parent, He does try and steer us away from danger and poor decision making. But also like any good parent, He knows that the decision making has to be ours, and if we’re absolutely determined to have our own way, then He will step aside and let us do it and incur all the damaging consequences from it. An illustration I frequently use is of driving down a windy road at night in a car with God. As long as God has the wheel, the trip goes smoothly. If we demand to take the wheel, He will warn us against it. If we insist, He will take His hands off of it and let us do it. This is when we find the car wrapped around a tree we didn’t see but He did.

Often, also, God uses these times to get our attention so that we will get to know Him again, or at least better. He wants us to know Him, to walk with Him, and to be in relationship with Him. This does not ensure catastrophe (in our opinion) does not happen, but when it does we know He is right there with us through it.

God didn’t cause this current crisis, human beings did. He hasn’t left, He’s right here. All it takes is turning around and reaching out to Him.

A Ramble About the Shroud of the Dark Side

“The shroud of the dark side has fallen.” Yoda, Attack of the Clones

“The dark side is everywhere.” - Revenge of the Sith, opening crawl

These lines has been running through my mind for the past couple of days as it seems to describe the general feel or “energy” which is gripping the country and even the world right now. Principally, it is the emotion of fear and panic which is causing it, but this of course leads to anger, which leads to hatred, which leads to suffering. Master Yoda’s words, and the screenwriter’s who wrote them, have rarely been truer or wiser than now.

This “dark side energy” is just as infectious if not more so than the virus which sent it spiraling out of control. As my wife and I were discussing, it is this energy which is causing, and is going to cause, more problems and more deaths than the physical virus alone through despair and depression. As the stock market tanks, as people can’t find food and supplies because of hoarding, as they’re stuck in their homes for fear of infection, they’re going to get depressed. They’re going to get angry. They’re going to succumb to that fear and anger and they’re going to do things they wouldn’t normally do because of it.

There are a lot of Christians who think the philosophy behind the Jedi of Star Wars is completely anti-Christian. Having studied both the Scriptures and the ancient writings of the Church in some detail for the last several decades, I am not one of them. The Didache, an ancient Christian catechism from the first century begins with, “There are two paths. The path of life and the path of death.” St. Paul wrote about the distinction between the flesh and the spirit, and the descriptions of what it looked like when the Christian was operating in either one. The description of the works of the flesh is very much dark side stuff, while the description of the fruit of the Spirit is very much light side stuff. The works of the flesh are the easy path, while the fruit of the Spirit requires self-surrender and abandonment to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to “walk in the light as He is in the light.” We are called to turn away from the darkness through recognition and practice of our co-crucifixion with Him. As St. Paul says, “because you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” As Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are, fundamentally and like the Jedi, a religious community devoted to a single purpose, and that purpose is the practice and presence of Jesus Christ through us.

I leave you with a Jedi meditation with a Christian twist:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is Jesus Christ.

May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you, always.

Thoughts About the Coronavirus

I was just at Walmart in Garden Grove this morning about 10am. Mostly, I just wanted to test the waters and see how things stood after the madness this weekend. Traffic on Chapman and Beach Blvd. was normal (busy) it seemed for this time of day. Parking lot was still pretty full, but not overly so. Walked into the store. There seemed to be fewer associates than normal. The grocery section looked picked over, but there was still some stuff on the shelves. No water or paper goods of course. The processed meats like lunchmeat, hot dogs, and bacon was so empty you’d have thought they’d just installed the display. No eggs that I could see. The fresh meat section was almost empty. On the other hand, there were still some fresh vegetables and fruit, and the gluten free specialty section still seemed pretty well stocked and I was able to pick up some more bagels. And on the upside there were no fights or arguments over anything that I could see. There was only one person in front of me at the self-checkout, but no bags available. Overall, it felt like things were beginning to die down from the other day when there were lines to the checkout to the back of the store at Vons. Walmart gets their shipments around 2pm and, if there’s a second one, around 4pm or 5pm, so most likely they’ll be restocked by tomorrow as long as there’s no problems at the distribution center. I know this because I used to unload trucks for them at their store in Orange years ago.

It’s tough to know sometimes about how to think about this new virus threat that’s going around. Popularly just called, “the coronavirus,” it’s a new and unique strain of a coronavirus, the type of virus usually responsible for the common cold. The proper taxonomic name for the virus is SARS-CoV-2, though governments seem squeamish to actually call it that. The illness itself has been dubbed COVID-19 to distinguish it from these other, apparently less threatening coronaviri (yes, that’s a proper Latin plural for “virus”). The symptoms are fever and dry cough which can develop into pneumonia in a minority of cases. It can be transmitted by those not displaying any symptoms, and someone who has recovered from it can still transmit it for thirty five days after recovery. It apparently doesn’t like heat and won’t survive being exposed to hot, sunny days. Those who are especially susceptible are the elderly, and those with pre-existing medical issues. For the record, as I write this, I am one of those with a relevant pre-existing medical condition. I have had asthma and chronic lung illnesses since I was seven years old. Bronchitis and pneumonia are old if unwelcome friends. My daughter, 74 year old mother, and sister are all also in this group. It could also potentially send my wife into another MS flare should she become infected. So, yes, this is a concern for my family as well.

So far the average fatality rate worldwide that can be measured is hovering around 3.5%. By comparison, deaths from common influenzas hover around .09% of those infected if the sources I’ve been reading are right. What this does mean is that 96.5% of cases on average worldwide aren’t going to be fatal, and another figure I’ve heard from health authority sources is that 80% of those infected will only develop mild, cold like symptoms, with 20% requiring critical medical care. If we were to put those numbers into perspective, worldwide there is a population of about 7.7 billion. If every member of the human race became infected, we’re looking at about 269.5 million fatalities. The current population of the United States is 327.1 million. If every person in the US became infected, we are looking at 11.4 million fatalities.

I remember the SARS scare, as well as the Bird Flu (H1N1), the Swine Flu, Ebola, and others. But the reaction this time worldwide is unlike anything I’ve seen through all of these which were far more lethal. I think the panic which has developed about it is because there, as of yet, seems to be no way to actually contain it, at least not in the US. Tests exist, but not enough for our population size. Offically, there are now something like 4008 cases of this coronavirus in the United States, but in reality we really don’t know how many people are actually infected because people can transmit it without symptoms, and those displaying symptoms are being turned away when they go to seek testing. This is both worrying and encouraging. It’s worrying because it represents a completely broken pandemic response system for the US, but it’s encouraging because it also means that the actual fatality rate is likely lower than is being recognized for the reporting.

The truth is that the panic response is far more worrying than the virus itself. Stock markets are crashing. As was noted at the beginning, stores are being emptied. Businesses, schools, and entertainment venues are shutting down. Society as a whole is grinding to a halt because of a virus which the vast majority of people will recover from with only mild symptoms. At this point, it will not surprise me if the announcement is made that we’re going to start seeing national guard troops patrolling the streets to keep people in their houses.

In all of this, we need to keep some perspective. This is a virus, but it’s not a zombie apocalypse. It has a higher than normal fatality rate, but it’s not the black plague. Probability wise, depending on whether or not you’re in the group of people who are susceptible, even if you get it, you’ll survive. And, to be honest, even if you die from it, especially if you belong to Jesus Christ you are immediately transferred to His presence. It’s not a loss, it’s a win. There is no death, there is only Jesus Christ and resurrection. As I am one of those people who is likely to develop severe symptoms if I contract it, I do not say this lightly or flippantly, but sincerely. This life is worth nothing in comparison with the shedding of this corrupted mortality for incorruption and the full revelation and union with God through Jesus Christ.

Finally, be sensible. Be considerate. Be compassionate to others around you in whatever form that might need to take. But don’t be afraid, one way or the other.