Opinion: Coronavirus through the eyes of a Christian
Taylor Deaton, Editor-in-Chief
Photo by Tai’s Captures on Unsplash.
The views and opinions expressed on in this article are solely those of the original author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Vision NGU or North Greenville University.
On March 8, I sat down with my family for Sunday afternoon lunch and the word “Coronavirus” was brought to my attention for the first time. Less than two days later, it was all I could see.
The mass hysteria happened so quickly. We had only seen the start of Coronavirus tearing through Italy when the WHO declared it to be a pandemic. This only struck more fear into the hearts of people across our globe.
On my college campus, and on college campuses all across the United States, anxiety definitely rose in students in regard to what was going to happen to the rest of our semester if the number of Coronavirus cases grew.
After spending a substantial amount of time on Twitter scrolling through tweets from terrified Americans worried about how and when Coronavirus, COVID-19, was going to spread to our country, I was reminded of Jesus calming the storm while His disciples trembled in fear.
As a believer, I recognize the words of Jesus when He says to Peter, “why did you doubt?” after testing Peter’s faith. I also recognize the way the winds calmed after Jesus climbed aboard.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Coronavirus has invaded our world right before Easter. At a time where Christians should be in prayer as we prepare to celebrate Christ rising from the dead, we are being subjected to fear of the unknown.
This is a test of our faith in a very personal way, because whether we keep it together on social media or not, it would be unwise to ignore the warnings of how Coronavirus could impact our world even more than it already has if we don’t take measures to protect ourselves and others.
In times of crisis, the world pays attention to how Christians respond. This is no exception, and the world is watching to see how we will respond to Coronavirus.
We should be praying for our local, statewide and national leaders as they make decisions regarding what measures we need to take to slow the spread of this virus. In addition, we should be following those guidelines.
Quarantine doesn’t have to be silent. Instead of dwelling on the fact we are confined to our houses for the next month, we can use this time as an opportunity to let Christ invade our thoughts and guide us through this.
Also, we should try to limit the amount of media we consume. Not everything we see on social media in regard to COVID-19 is from a creditable source, so there’s no point in spending time reading it and sharing it for others to read, also.
There any many times in scripture where God tells us to find peace in Him, and that’s exactly how I’m handling this time. It’s scary and everything seems very uncertain, but it isn’t. God knows how this will end, and I’m choosing to find peace in Him instead of panicking over the unknown.
