I wonder how differently people would think and feel about COVID-19, had it not been in a U.S. presidential election year.
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In the scramble to "do something" about the situation, many lost their way.
The initial rush to react was common to all peoples, but I think the United States is where many others looked for long-term solutions and guidance, since our country leads the way in many areas, culturally speaking.
When discussing changes brought about since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I seldom, if ever directly blame the disease itself for bringing about the changes. It was instead the response to the pandemic that caused the great disruptions that rippled through many aspects of our "business as usual."
I was hopeful for some collective humbling of humanity, as together we faced a force that we didn't assume to be able to control. Though, collectively considering scientific thinking in the world, I'm not sure this humbling came about at all.
The expectations we have regarding our control over nature and our expertise in medicine trouble me, as it seems we don't believe that anyone should ever suffer any degree of medical misfortune, let alone death.
I'm puzzled by those who worship natural selection as the only means of evolution, and thereby the lone creative force behind life in the universe. These same people show a great lack of faith in their gods by their insistence on avoiding death at any cost. I would think they should see great value in having some more tigers thinning the herd. According to their worldview, we haven't improved much genetically as a result of the medical triumphs of the last few centuries. Their apathetic concern for the future good of humanity seems to be shallow indeed.
I'm sorry if you've suffered directly from this disease. I've been infected more than once. Many people died. The pain is real. I don't delight in suffering. But I do know its value in teaching lessons not learned in any other way.
I hold a solemn, weighty kind of gratitude for this outbreak, knowing something of the great and/or terrible things to come in the final days before the Lord returns again.
I'm hopeful for lots of humbling opportunities still on their way, though the humility may be involuntarily extracted at a high price from some, including weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
There are wonderful benefits coming from these last few years. For example, I can see many positive changes in attitudes toward family life and work, especially regarding the employer—employee relationship. These changes seem to be toward abandoning many harmful expectations established during the late 19th century, most easily summarized in my own thinking as the "Gilded Age" mentality of business empires. People are increasingly less tolerant of being treated like pieces of equipment or property. The value of realizing our own complete identity as it is manifest in more aspects than what we do to provide for ourselves, is gaining in popularity.
Further changes leading to the establishment of a Zion society and culture will build upon this abandoning of tired old worldly ways, and other similar adjustments to our love of money and the praise of the world, exchanged for the love of God and of our fellows.
I look forward to the day when we stop asking children what they want to be when they grow up. Currently, we are training them that what they choose to do for money will form their identity. How cheaply we are telling children to sell themselves!
We are children of God, who've been placed here on earth with a purpose: to prove whether we love the things of this world more highly than the things of God. How deeply we set our hearts upon the things of this world will make all the difference in our future, where we may later find we have forfeited heavenly treasures in an ironic frenzy of laying up for ourselves things that bring a hollow happiness, only for now.
Joy is what we ought to seek. Joy goes much deeper than light, frivolous mirth. The soaring heights of joy are only revealed as the dark depths of sorrow are opened up underneath. With greater responsibility comes greater freedom.
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I see COVID-19 and other such challenges as opportunities for sifting. The chaff blows away in the wind, and the wheat falls down into safe garners.
Overgrown bushes need pruning, even if temporarily painful.
I think we need to prune back some burdensome overgrowth in our culture. I wonder if America could use a good, hard economic depression soon. I think the benefits to our country and to the world would long outweigh any hardship or inconvenience for individuals, communities, and nations.
All adversity is opportunity. Opportunity to turn away from God, or to turn towards Him. Forced changes remove our ability to continue sitting on fences, no matter how comfortable we've become. God knows what will make us happy, better than we know. It is a loving and merciful God Who allows calamities to fall, knowing full well the potential for growth and strength that comes disguised as mere misery to those who blind themselves by loathing and self-pity. You're going to be turned, maybe even thoroughly shaken. The spinning will slow, and regardless of the helplessness you feel, where you land will really be up to you.
Turn away from God or turn towards Him. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.
