What Dead Men Say about How Christians Should Think about COVID-19 (Part 1)

Learning From Those Who Went Before Us

We live in the midst of a pandemic and panicked people. Some are crying that the sky is falling and others are grumbling that life has had to change. How should we think as Christians? Our guiding principle is always bound up in the questions, “How do I love God with all my heart, mind, and soul?” and “How do I love my neighbor as myself?” Practically speaking, however, we must work out the details in the specific situation we are in. This is complicated by our own emotions and sin.

One way to mitigate the effects of being caught up in the cultural moment is to look to the past. Hearing from dead authors and speakers can correct our myopic view of the situation. They had their own blind spots (as we all do). However, those blindspots are not likely to be the same as our own. Therefore, they can offer us a helpful salve that enables us to see our own situation more clearly.

So, I want to briefly “hear” from three dead men on our present situation: CS Lewis, Francis Grimke, and Martin Luther (Note, I heard about these from various sources…so I didn’t know about them on my own).  Today, we’ll look at CS Lewis.

CS Lewis, in his article entitled “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948), would remind us that death is always at our doorstep (Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays). 

CS Lewis faced a time when people were panicked over the potential destruction from new atomic weapons. While this is different in some ways, it can easily be adapted to fit our circumstances. In one section, he writes,

It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb [or a virus we might add], let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies but they need not dominate our minds.

Here is what I take from his thoughts as I try to apply it to our situation. As Christians, we should recognize that death is a certain reality, and live like people who trust in God rather than in a life dominated by fear. For us, death is a defeated foe. It is still a foe. We do not go about seeking death. However, death, by whatever means, will only serve to bring us to the presence of the Lord. That type of thinking clears our minds from the wearying work of worry so that we can engage in living. Trust in God enables us to live rather than panic.

Now, to be clear, this does not mean we live as those with no fear at all. Fear is at times a proper motivator. It can rightly motivate us to flee from danger and death. The point is that we are not controlled by fear but by a fear of the Lord.

One more thing to point out. Lewis mentions hanging out with friends. In our situation, that might not be the loving thing to do (a disease is different than a bomb in that respect). For some thoughts on this, we'll turn to Martin Luther in the next post.