COVID-19 has impacted us all in different ways. Businesses are closing, workers are being laid off, people are home alone experiencing loneliness and depression, many are afraid and some have even lost their lives. It would be irresponsible to pretend this pandemic is in any way a “blessing in disguise.” However, one life-changing thing that happens during a crisis is we are reminded of what’s most important, and we are called to courageously respond to those reminders.
C.S. Lewis once said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
What’s so impactful about a season of loss—whether it’s loss of income, health, security or community—is that in losing those things, you actually rediscover how important they are to your life.
Here are three crucial reminders we’ve been forced to reevaluate because of COVID-19:
1. We are human first. Super Tuesday was less than two weeks before the CDC first recommended social distancing. Leading up to the presidential primaries, America was more divided than it has been in a very long time. But nothing brings people together like a crisis.
The Bible teaches that “our fight is not against flesh and blood” (Eph. 6:12a). That truth is one we often forget, but this pandemic has given us a tangible representation of it.
This virus has reminded us that before we’re Republican or Democrat; before we’re black or white; and before we’re American, Italian or Chinese, we are human, and we have to look out for one another.
By taking away the things that make us human—freedom, human connection and so on—COVID-19 has really made us human again.
2. We’re not in control. Our nations invest trillions of dollars, billions of hours and millions of people into building robust empires with seemingly limitless technological capabilities, vast economies and incredible military power. We convince ourselves that we are invincible and in control of our lives and destiny.
The coronavirus has reminded us that a tiny, microscopic bug could destroy everything we’ve worked so hard to create. It’s a painful yet vital lesson that we are, in fact, not in control.
And by taking away our sense of control, it forces us to trust in the only one who really is in control.
3. We need each other. In many ways, we are better equipped than any other generation in the history of the world to take on a global pandemic of this magnitude. Many of us can work from home. We can have our groceries and living essentials delivered to our front door. We can continue taking high school or college classes, attending church virtually and even connecting with one another through social media.
Yet none of these technological gifts that we are blessed to have can ever replace our need for face-to-face human connection. That’s easy to forget when we have immediate access to it. But the coronavirus has reminded us just how essential community and human connection are to our mental, emotional and spiritual health.
By taking away our ability to connect with one another fully, COVID-19 has given us a renewed longing for doing life in community.
Pastor Andy Stanley recently said, “When the story of COVID-19 is just a story we tell—a year from now, five years from now, maybe 10 years from now—let’s make sure our stories are stories worth telling.” The choices you make each day during this crisis is writing that story. Stanley says, “To retreat to fear simply means we lose the opportunity of doing something extraordinary in this season of life.” Don’t waste your quarantine. Let’s choose to have extraordinary courage. {eoa}
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Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett 
