Denison Forum

In addition to the escalating numbers of victims and patients and its devastation of our economy, the pandemic is disrupting our daily lives in unprecedented ways. Adrienne Heinz, a clinical research psychologist at the Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, notes: “Our routine is the scaffolding of life. It’s how we organize information and our time. And without it, we can feel really lost.”

As a result, she says, “I’m ... really worried about families. I’m worried about increases in alcohol use. I’m worried about domestic violence. I’m worried about child abuse, because parents are under-resourced.”

One of the most-read articles ever on Harvard Business Review is an interview with David Kessler on the grief we are feeling in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The article describes Kessler as “the world’s foremost expert on grief.” 

He notes that “we’re feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. ... The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.”

Collective prayer has been instrumental in each of the spiritual awakenings America has experienced. And today we need to return to this practice.

The anxiety of this crisis may well be a catalyst for the spiritual renewal we need so urgently.

As the saying goes, sometimes we need to get so far down that we have nowhere to look but up. Such humility is the foundational step to the spiritual awakening we need so urgently today.

What can Christians uniquely do to serve our world and our Lord in these critical days? 

I believe that this unprecedented crisis presents the most unprecedented opportunity for spiritual awakening in my lifetime. As with the Civil War and World War II, the fact of mortality is more obvious for more of us than ever before. A deadly disease that anyone can get is a deadly disease everyone can get.

Could it be that God would redeem this global medical outbreak by using it to spark a global spiritual outbreak? Could he be calling his people to the front lines of this spiritual battle?

The news we’re all waiting for is the announcement that a vaccine or cure for coronavirus has been discovered. We trust that day will come one day.

When it does, as with crises of the past, we will remember then what people are doing now. From the president and members of Congress to our local leaders and those we know personally, actions taken (or not taken) today will echo for many years to come.

 If the coronavirus pandemic is not the end of the world, is it nonetheless the judgment of God on the world?

Biblical judgments are preceded by prophetic warnings and they are sent in response to specific sins. Well, I am not aware of any prophetic warnings before the coronavirus pandemic started in China or particular sins that produced it.

According to the World Health Organization, the US could become the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. This is because, as the WHO noted yesterday, we are seeing “a very large outbreak and an outbreak that is increasing in intensity.”

A veteran member of the International Olympic Committee told USA Today that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games set to be held in Tokyo are going to be postponed.  It's is likely the games will occur in 2021.

Americans are understandably afraid—afraid of the coronavirus, of its impact on our lives, of the unknown. But there are two ways to be afraid. One is negative and debilitating; the other is positive and transforming.