“Whom will we be when this crisis is over?”

I must confess I have not been focused like a laser on my work this past week. My eyes keep getting pulled away looking at news reports about the coronavirus. It seems I cannot get enough information about this phenomenon that is upending my world.

Victor Davis Hanson wrote an article entitled “The Great Coronavirus War Is upon Us”, that captures why I cannot divert my eyes from the next report and then the next. Something is upon all of us. Something we cannot quite control. Something bigger than us all. We have never experienced anything like this before in our lifetimes.

He said, “Try this thought experiment. Envision the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, as a living, breathing enemy—which, of course, is exactly what it is.

“But imagine for a moment that we are in a real war with a cognizant, thinking, and a clever enemy whose sole reason to live is to hurt, maim, or kill as many of us as it can."

“COVID-19 may not have jets, tanks, or nukes, like our past enemies. But its arsenal, numbers, cunning, and willpower are said to be formidable.”

We have all been submerged in a new reality, one we could hardly have supposed just a few weeks ago. No wonder we are drawn to look at it, think about it, play with it like a change in your mouth when a tooth is pulled. Can this really be happening to us? Everybody? All of us?

Yet, beyond the shock and awe of being swept by a virus and being a spectator of a big deal, there is some personal grieving. Canceled, canceled, canceled reads one headline. Everything we care about, everything that diverts and entertains us, opportunities we have worked hard for, are suddenly vanished in a whirlwind. 

Things that are canceled might be a High School graduation, a funeral of a close friend, the birth of a baby, a long-planned trip, birthday plans, a visit to a friend that has health risk, and on and on. Who would have thought? 

These events and connections are what lift life from the daily tedium and give us something to look forward to and something to work towards. Our social life in major ways, canceled. How do we even calculate the way this spice in our lives makes the rest of our lives manageable?

We only see each other as we go shopping and realize the crowds are suddenly huge and new energy rocks the store like Walmart and Costco, and others not so much. Since we don’t know what duration we are shopping for, we may shop for more than we need in a kind of group frenzy. I take pictures of empty shelves where rolls of toilet paper and bottled water once stood with my cell phone.

So, we have been dealt with disappointment as the cancellations mount, giving us the sense that all those things we looked forward to having vanished and will not return in the same form. Something is flat when there is nothing to look forward to. We may feel flat too, or worse. We hate it when we see long-term efforts come to nothing—like the musician who prepared for years for the concert that now will be canceled. What was it all for? Is this some dreadful hocks?

But wait, there’s more of course. Incomes are flattened by this tumbler. Some businesses cannot survive the cessation of customers and cash flow. The people who give samples at Costco will be let go. The cruise lines are empty. (My dad and family were planning on going to Alaska to celebrate his 80th birthday in May. Looks like this will not happen. How disappointing.) 

The stock market has lost all of its gains since the 2016 election. The loss is in the trillions and we feel it in our retirement accounts. (Should I have invested in precious metals?) I wonder how many households will survey, including mine.  

What a lethal combination it can be to be both disappointed, a little fearful of the virus, devastated by the economy, and cut off from so much of what makes us American’s.  

For some of us, even our Churches have shut their doors for the intent of protecting their members, especially from the closeness of sitting with one another and partaking of the Lords Supper.  

This doesn’t have to be a profoundly less spiritual time for American’s, it can actually be an increase of goodwill by visiting with our family, our neighbors, and those we can minister to. You know, maybe we can check in to see if everything is okay.  Would it not be shocking if a friend, a family member dies because we were all shut-in.

So, I feel calm, peaceful, and happy in the bubble of my world for the next few days, weeks, or even months. Who knows how long it will be? I don’t. But I have faith in the Lord’s capacity and my cooperation with Him to be profoundly sturdy and fine through it all.

When this is over, “Whom will we be when this crisis is over?”