Will Americans Unite During The Coronavirus Outbreak?
Only a week ago, life was pretty normal. Around the world, the coronavirus outbreak was spreading, but that sort of thing couldn’t happen here in the US… could it? I remember listening to high school kids joking around about it, and seeing social media memes doing the same. A week later, people are fighting over toilet paper and hand sanitizer, and we are all sitting in our homes living in fear.
We wonder what life is going to be like for the next few months… Will I get sick and be quarantined? If I do, how will I get food and supplies? Will I lose my job? What will happen to my family? Maybe you have existing health conditions or are elderly… this gives you extra fear because you are in the higher risk category, and you see lower risk people treating the virus outbreak nonchalantly.
In this post, I would like to share a few things that have been formulating in my mind as I have been observing the way the world has been reacting to the coronavirus outbreak. My hope is that we will work together to come out of this predicament stronger and more unified than ever before.
Stop Blaming
Our country is sickeningly polarized politically. If you are a Democrat, it’s idiot Trump’s fault. If you are a Republican, it’s the liberal media’s fault or your Democrat governor. This is ridiculous… it’s no one’s fault! Sure there are moments that leadership have failed and could have done better, but this is a tough situation. People from all political viewpoints want to resolve the crisis and save lives. Instead of spending our time blaming the other side, we need to unite and fight this pandemic together.
Unity may determine whether we come out of this stronger or weaker. I know I would not want to be the one making the tough decisions that are being made right now and you probably wouldn’t either. If you are not an expert in disease containment or economic crisis, you probably should stop acting like you are. We need to respect that our leaders are not perfect and submit to their authority for the good of us all. Stop blaming them and start praying for them!
Help Others
If you didn’t have toilet paper, wouldn’t you hope your friend with 100 rolls would share? If you have more than you need and hear of someone who doesn’t have what they need, SHARE. You think you can control your fate by hoarding up everything? Ultimately God controls your fate and you either honor him or dishonor him by the way you steward your resources. This is going to be a time when we will truly be tested to love our neighbors (Luke 10:25-37). I know people who are servers at restaurants who have completely lost their income during this season and so have many others. Will we help them? Or will we watch them sink?
Defining Moment
This is a defining moment for the American people. If a worldwide pandemic wont bring us together, nothing will. We should not live in fear. Fear only leads to selfishness and blame shifting; it divides us and breaks us. We will make it through the coronavirus outbreak, but we need to stop joking around and/or stop freaking out. Instead we need to selflessly love and respect our neighbors and our leaders. As horrible as it is that we have to face this, I pray we face it together in unity and come out better because of it.
If you are fearful and feeling hopeless during this season, see my previous post Where Do You Find Hope When Things Go Wrong?
