Set Your Mind on Things Above

Feeling frustrated by all you find on your social media feed?

Bothered by the barrage of brutish babel spewed by the media broadcasters?

Tired and tormented even by television ads and entertainment that used to be turned to as an escape from troubling times?

I've found a secret source of solace I want to share. They are wise words from a sacred text that has stood the test of time.  The counsel these words contain will calm your soul in the current crisis. The message contained in these words has the power to produce peace in the midst of political turbulence and courage in a culture of chaos.

What words am I referring to? They come through the pen of the apostle Paul, but their origins flow from heaven itself. First written to a small, struggling church nearly 2,000 years ago, they ring true today as much as ever. You will find them in the book of Colossians, chapter 3, verse 2. 

Here they are: "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."

Read it again.

Read it again.

Here is the antidote to our anxiety. Here is a prescription for all our problems. 

Christian, you can do this. You don't HAVE to think about what comes through your radio, TV or social media platform. You don't HAVE to pay attention to every ad, every news broadcast, every discouraging word from your surroundings. Rather, you can decide to think on something else. You choose your thoughts. You hold the steering wheel of your mind in your hands. Your thoughts do not have to go down every bleak and bumpy boulevard you discover. Shift gears. Turn around. Your mind is a telescope. You decide what you want to look at and what you don't. "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."

Christian, you should do this. The contents of heavenly contemplation are much better than the material you will find here on earth. This is a more pleasant path. Everything in this world is passing away. It's rotting as we speak. Everything in heaven lives forever. The ruler of this world is only evil. The King of Glory is only good. Earthly things frequently disappoint. Heavenly things can always be trusted. The Word of God is heavenly...think on that. Forgiveness is heavenly...think on that. Righteousness, truth, love, holiness...all are heavenly...think on them. Most of all, Christ Himself sits in heaven. Think on Him. Meditate upon Him. Consider Him and all He has done, all He is doing, all He will still do. "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."

Christian, lastly, you must do this. You have to. Because this is who you are. "For you died," says Paul in the following verse, "and your life is hidden with Christ in God." You see, believer, you no longer belong here in this world. You're a stranger here. Your citizenship is in a better place. This is not your home. We are only passing through. You don't park at every intersection to approach. You pause and go through it. You are looking ahead. That isn't your destination. And you will never reach your journey's end by building your home on the side of the highway. Look up. Lift your thoughts. You must "set your mind on the things above, not on things on the earth."

Coronavirus IV - 3 Questions I'm Thinking About

The past few weeks have certainly given us plenty to think about. Not that I have had more time to think. I haven't. As someone working in health care this pandemic has resulted in several very difficult weeks of long hours as we have been planning how to manage the ever-changing situation. My heart goes out to the many who have been impacted by this virus.

I think it was mostly the unexpected nature of our situation that has been the hardest on people. We have gotten used to people dying from the flu, from heart disease, from cancer. It is not so much the "numbers" that are the most scary about the coronavirus, but the unknown. If I tell you 10,000 people will die this month from the flu, we can accept that. If I tell you 10 people will die from an alien attack, we freak out. We don't have a category in our mind for "alien attack." This is new. This is unexpected. This sounds dangerous. How do we know if it will only be 10?

But now that we have gotten more accustomed to the concept of a coronavirus, I have found my mind beginning to ask some fundamental questions about all of this. I don't know that I have the answers. Just a few pickled thoughts at best.

The main 3 questions I have right now are:

1) Were We Ready?  Were we ready for this virus as a nation? I'm not asking if we responded quickly enough to the Wuhan situation. That will be debated forever. I just mean in general...were we ready for something like this to happen. Seems like we should have been. A virus is not a new thing. Even a pandemic is not a new thing. This wasn't our first go-around with an infectious disease. In all fairness, it seems like we were ready in some ways, but not ready in some other ways. To not have enough masks and other PPE seems almost inexcusable. It felt like we were inventing how to respond on the spot. Did anyone ever use the terms "social distancing" before now? Have we tried this amount of "shutting down" before? Did we debate this type of response publicly long before we actually had to pull the trigger and do it? I don't recall it. It sounds silly, but even the run on toilet paper has happened in the past. Still, we couldn't respond in a timely way, and weeks later our stores still can't keep up with the demand. I guess from the perspective of a citizen, I would give us a "C" in our readiness overall.

2) Did It Work? The next question I'm wondering about is whether our response as a nation has actually worked. Did it save lives? If so, how many? The answer isn't obvious or easy. How do we know what the results would have been if we had done nothing? Models tried to answer that question. But models are just guesses with data, and as the data keeps changing, the models keep changing. I honestly don't know how we ever really get to know the answer to this question. Scientifically the answer would require clinical trials, a control group, blinding, crossovers, etc. Since that is unlikely, we will mostly just be left with opinions. My opinion? Yeah, it helped. Less people got sick and died as a result or our efforts. We flattened the curve a bit. How much? I don't know. I'm not sure anyone ever will.

3) Was It Right? Specifically, is what we have done as a country with respect to mandatory social distancing and the closing down of businesses just and fair? Was this the right response? Is it consistent with our fundamental beliefs, our constitution, our liberty and our notion of freedom? Did we have to respond this way? Here I am a little more sure of my own answer to this question at the moment. My answer is no.

I am honestly struggling with how our approach to this could be right. I believe it saved lives. And the philosophy of pragmatism says "if it worked, it was good." But I don't live by an "ends justifies the means" worldview. Does the lesser evil of what we did compensate for the greater evil of lost life? I just can't wrap my head around it. I'm open to being shown I am wrong. I hope to remain open minded. I surely wouldn't wish death on anyone. But I just can't see how a free society can do what we did.

What did we do? As I see it (I'm open to reconsider), we basically said to 1 group of people "You are in a non-essential job. Therefore, you must stay home. You must close up. You must give up working. You must give up your business, your livelihood, your employees, your products, your means of providing for yourself. Give up your health insurance. You must stop getting paid, you must give up all sense of dignity that comes from employment. You may lose your home, your car, your property. Everything you worked years to build you must dismantle for the sake of others." Make no mistake, that is what we did. Not to 1 person. Not to a few dozen. But as of the writing of this post there have been 17 million unemployment claims in 3 weeks as a result of our social distancing rules. Will all suffer equally? Of course not. But some will be severely hurt for sure.

And to another group we said: "You are essential. You can keep working, keep getting paid, keep your dignity, keep your homes, cars and all your stuff. Work in a hospital or pharmacy? You're fine. Work for the government? You're fine, keep working. Work in a job that was already or easily converted to remote work? You're fine, paychecks may keep flowing in. You all get to keep your jobs."

It bothers me deep in my soul that the most vocal people about the importance of mandatory business closings and social distancing are those who are not impacted at all  by the rules. Politicians are not impacted. The media is not impacted. Whenever I see people say "just stay home" it is almost assuredly someone who has seen little to no economic impact themselves. I'm sure there are exceptions. It is just a bit too convenient  in my opinion to vote for and promote restrictions that only impact other people.

Yes, I'm glad that unemployment benefits will help a lot of people. But I'm also pretty sure that a check can't fix everything. It just doesn't seem right.

Conclusion: I've run out of thoughts for now. My heart goes out to the sick. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones. My heart goes out to those who have lost jobs, income, a business, their savings. This isn't really a conclusion. It is only the end.

Tomorrow is Easter. I'm reminded there is hope. I'm reminded that what my sins did to Christ on Good Friday, God's Grace overcame on resurrection Sunday. This world was in a mess long before coronavirus. There is a bigger debt than our national debt: the debt we owe to God for our sin. And His recovery plan was accomplished at Calvary. See you at the cross.

Coronavirus III - You Cannot Be Moved

In this my 3rd post motivated by the coronavirus I have deliberately tried to stay away from strong pronouncements about what we should do. These have not been especially "medical" posts. There are plenty of those. This blog is a place where I think out loud. Maybe my thoughts will change over time. They often have.

In my first post I stated that we simply do not have enough data to predict with any accuracy what will happen in the U.S. as the virus spreads. This is still true. Though we have many more cases confirmed, we still cannot really know what the hospitalization or mortality rate of this virus will turn out to be. More time and more cases and more testing are needed.

In my second post I stated we need to strike a balance between health, economy and personal freedom. The balance is hard to find. But I do continue to question that an extended and mandatory closing of non-essential businesses is the right approach. I continue to point out that this strategy is being promoted entirely by those who have virtually nothing to lose by this method. Medical people are not out of work. Politicians are not out of work. The media are not out of work. I only point out that it is at least reasonable and fair to question the "balance" of this when it is being enforced by those who are not financially impacted by the rules. Have we polled the 3.28 million individuals who applied for unemployment this past week? It appears many more people have lost their jobs than lost their health from this virus so far.

Today I'm thinking about all the distress and fear that COVID-19 has caused. And a verse that I read gave me something comforting to think on. In particular, this post was prompted by Psalm 125:1 which reads "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever."

The Psalmist begins with a comparison. Comparisons are helpful tools for teaching. To compare two things is usually to say "this" (some new thought or idea) is like "that" (something well-known and understood). We see this all the time in the Bible. The Book of Psalms, for example, opens by saying that the man who "delights in the law of the Lord" can be compared to a "tree, planted by rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season."  Do you want to be fruitful? Do you want to be spiritually healthy? "Delight in the law of the Lord."

The comparison in Psalm 125:1 is another such teaching tool. The Psalmist is saying that "God-trusting people" are like Mount Zion which is stable, firm, unshakable and immovable. They "cannot be moved." Those who trust the Lord stand firm. Those who trust the Lord are on sure ground. Those who trust God aren't shaken by circumstances. You could sooner move Mount Zion than you can move the man that trusts the Lord.

But in what sense is it said of these people that they "cannot be moved"?

Well, surely it is not that their opinions "cannot be moved." Opinions change. Thinking changes. Paul says "when I was a child, I thought like a child." But that changed. He grew up. Opinions change.

Surely it cannot be that our physical location "cannot be moved." We move all the time. Christ Himself moved from town to town and sent His disciples to move and spread out and bring the gospel to all nations.

In what sense, then, is it true that those who trust in the Lord "cannot be moved?"

What the Psalmist seems to have in mind is safety. He is saying that those trusting in God cannot be moved away from or outside of His protection.  Those trusting in the Lord have His promised protection, such that no enemy can so much as touch them without the express permission of God. The verse immediately following verse 1 says that "the Lord surrounds His people." Christian - God Himself surrounds you. What can possibly harm you?

Are you in Christ? You are more safe than you can possibly know.

I'm reminded of that episode in the life of Elisha where he prayed for the Lord to open the eyes of his servant to see the great company of horses and fiery chariots all around. But the situation for the Christian is even better than this. God Himself surrounds you. Nothing can take you out of that circle of His protection. No, nothing, not even the coronavirus. Believer - you "cannot be moved."

No wonder this short Psalm ends with "Peace be upon Israel!"

How can we not be at peace when Christ has promised to "never leave us or forsake us"? How can we not be at peace when "neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing [virus' included], shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39).

Christian, I cannot make it any more plain than the text itself. God surrounds you. You are safe. You are secure. And as a mountain which cannot be moved, so you cannot be moved outside of the His protection. You are in the very hand of God. No one can snatch you away. You are in the fold of the Good Shepherd, and no one can steal His sheep.

But, my dear reader, note that this promise of Psalm 125:1 does have 1 very important limitation. Note that it only belongs to believers. It is exclusively given to "those who trust in the Lord." They, and they alone, "cannot be moved."

Do you trust Him? If not, your current place of imagined protection is going away. You will be taken out of it. You will be moved. Your sense of safety is temporary. Sadly, everything you count on for peace will one day be gone. Your money will go, your health will go, your friends will go, your peace will go, your life will go. Every protection you have surrounded yourself with will be gone. Then what will you do? Yes, you will be moved. The Psalmist himself in this very Psalm acknowledges this, saying ominously, "the Lord shall lead them away (vs. 5)." You will be moved from life to death, from death to judgement, and from judgment to hell itself.

The application is simple: trust in the Lord. Those who do are under the protection of the Almighty, and "cannot be moved."

Do you trust Him?

Coronavirus II - Love Thy Neighbor: Isolation & Striking the Balance

The current Director General of the World Health Organization is Dr. Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus. He was elected to serve his 5-year term in 2017. In some opening remarks to the media about the recent COVID-19 pandemic, he made the following noteworthy statement:

"All countries must strike a fine balance between protecting health, minimizing economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights."

If someone could summarize the challenge that lies before us right now as a society with respect to coronavirus containment, the above words (in my opinion) could hardly be improved upon.

Strike a fine balance. Therein lies the great challenge. And here is where extremism, panic, exaggerated reaction, and simple ignorance all lead us astray.

Maybe the most obvious example of the difficulty we have to "strike a fine balance" is in the area of isolation, or social distancing. By separating ourselves from one another, the virus is limited to those already infected, and will simply run its course, most will recover fine, and the pandemic will be done. To read the advice coming from some news sources...this is the absolutely most brilliant and perfect idea. Everybody just hunker down, work from home, and ride this out on your stocked-up supplies for 14 days (or longer).

Sounds perfect.

And it is no surprise that this sort of advice tends to be promoted heavily by journalists and media who have jobs that frankly can be done from anywhere (to a large extent). It seems perfect to them. And it seems to also be the preferred solutions to thousands of others who already work from home or who have jobs that will not be materially impacted if they simply stay home and work.

But that solution fails, from my perspective, to "strike the fine balance" we need. It fails to take into consideration that millions of Americans work in jobs that simply cannot be done from home. Shall we tell all our law enforcement officers to work from home? All healthcare workers? Hospitals? Pharmacies? Nursing homes? Should we simply shut down all retail operations for a month? Power supply? Auto mechanics? Medical supply distributors? Do people even realize that this would mean bankruptcy for hundreds of thousands of small businesses and hourly employees?

Radical social distancing sounds good in theory. But for many it is simply impractical. For a civilized society it is impossible.

I have read well-meaning religious leaders telling people that staying home for 2 weeks is the way "to love your neighbor" so they don't get infected. If you love your neighbor, they say, you will isolate yourself and prevent the spread of this virus. Even if you aren't sick, you may be carrying it, so stay home. Don't risk it, just because you are young and healthy and will recover...thy neighbor may not. So stay home. It is the "loving" thing to do.

Really? Is it that easy to say? Is the choice really that simple? Are those who choose to employ radical social distancing "loving" their neighbors, and everyone else does not? My question is this: which neighbor are you referring to? The neighbor who survives on tips at the local diner to pay her rent? The neighbor who lives paycheck to paycheck at the local donut shop? The neighbor who runs a small business in town for whom the reduced customer levels have already pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy?  The neighbor who didn't have the funds to stockpile and hoard food or paper products and actually needs to get to an open grocery store to replenish staples in her home? Is your voluntary isolation from the community for a couple weeks a way of loving THEM? 

The problem with the radical isolation, or the social distancing solution, is that it simply does not strike the balance needed to maintain our economy, though it would likely reduce the rate and lower the peak of coronavirus infection. It loves some neighbors, but not others. It promotes infection control, but is economically unsound. I do not believe it is appropriate if our goal is also to "minimize economic and social disruption."

People are free to think this through on their own and come up with their own plan. But if I were to be asked about how to respond to social distancing it is this:

1) Stay home if you are sick, coughing, sneezing, have a fever or have had direct contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient.

2) Practice very good personal hygiene. Wash your hands a lot. Break the habit of touching your face with your hands if at all possible. Cover coughs and sneezes.

3) If, in fact, you work in a job that you CAN work from home...great! Do it.

4) Please do not forget that many individuals and businesses are on the verge of financial collapse because of this pandemic. Love them too. Patronize them when you can and how you can.

I know that striking the balance is hard. I know that unfortunately a lot of people in our society won't take the common sense approach of staying home if they are sick. Maybe some can't. The result will be the spread of the virus and more sickness and more death. I'm grateful that well-meaning individuals promoting radical isolation do not want to see our hospitals and health systems overrun with sick patients that we have no room to treat. I get it.

But social isolation has it's limits. There is a balance to strike. There is more than just the medical health of our society at stake. I'm sure I don't have all the answers. I'm sure that striking the balance is a moving target. These are hard decisions to make as individuals let alone as a nation.

Pray for our nation, for our world and for all who are sick or caring for them. God bless!

Coronavirus - I Will Say What No One Wants to Say

This past week the World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus infection (AKA COVID-19) a pandemic.

As a result, some radical measures have been taken to prevent the further spread of this virus here in the U.S. Those measures include, but are not limited to, school closings, public gathering cancellations, stadium event cancellations, and entire sports seasons being cancelled or postponed. Health systems have taken significant steps to help protect both our patients and our staff. Additionally, we have observed some pockets of panic with respect to the hoarding of supplies and food and medicine.

All the while the American public has been listening to news reports that seem to gravitate toward one of two extremes. On the one hand are the news reports that suggest we are facing the apocalypse itself. Predictions have been made suggesting we are going to overwhelm our healthcare system, millions will be infected, tens of thousands will die, and our economy will collapse.

On the other hand there are those who seem to think we are all overreacting. They compare this simply to the seasonal flu. They wouldn't cancel any events, schools, or meetings. They think it is purely a hyped-up political scare tactic to make the current administration look inept.

So, what is REALLY going to happen over the coming weeks and months with respect to COVID-19?

We don't know.

I'll say it again: We don't know.

Nobody knows.

Our predictions are as bad and unreliable as forecasting the weather for next year.

And the simple reason is this: This EXACT scenario hasn't happened before. COVID-19 is new. It is not SARS. It is not Swine Flu. It is not Ebola. We are simply not scientifically advanced enough to plug in the data on this virus and predict the results.

Not only that, but we have no way to predict the exact effectiveness of the social distancing measures we are currently taking. How much will cancelling the NBA season help? We don't know. How much will cancelling college classes help? We don't know. What, exactly, is the benefit to moving employees to remote work vs. on site? We don't know. Yes, we DO know that social distancing helps. But no one can tell us for certain just how much it will help in this particular case.

We.Simply.Don't.Know.

People hate that. I hate that. As humans it grates against our souls to think we don't know something. We have an innate and natural desire to know all! On the one hand that is not a bad thing. It fuels science and promotes knowledge. But when uncoupled to humility we are prone to think we can predict just about anything. We can't.

Saying we don't know is terribly unpopular. It feels like a cop out. It feels unworthy of our great accomplishments in the realm of science. It feels like we are ignoring all sorts of evidence to say "I don't know." Can't we just look at data from China and Italy and Korea and use that evidence to tell us what will happen here? No. All that evidence tell us is what happened THERE.  Our culture is different. Our people are different. Our measures are different. The date is different. The virus itself may be different. There are simply too many factors to make guessing reliable. The problem is not a lack of data. The problem is that we are not God. Maybe that is what we hate most of all.

We are afraid of "I don't know." And fear makes us all do funny things. As a result, we prefer predictions, even wrong predictions, to the uncertainty of the future. We gravitate toward the extremes because it is more comfortable than "time will tell."

But guess what. Time will tell. Tomorrow we will know more than we do today. Next year we will know more about COVID-19 than we did in 2020. And we may learn something about the value of social distancing, the value of good hygiene. the value of immunizations, the value of being prepared.

In the midst of much uncertainty about coronavirus, I would remind people that there is much we DO know.

We know we should love one another.

We know we should be kind, considerate, patient, respectful and humble.

We know that missing a few public events is really no big deal in the end.

We know the economy will recover.

We know that God is good.

We know that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life."

I hope you know these things. I hope you know that panic is no way to live your life. I hope you know you should wash your hands, don't cough on others, and use common sense when it comes to your risk of illness.

Mostly I hope you know that this life, with or without the coronavirus, is fleeting and fading. None of us are guaranteed another day. Are things well with your soul? Have you considered the gospel of Jesus Christ? Have you dealt with your sin? What a shame to survive a virus but lose your soul to sin.

I don't know what will happen tomorrow. But I know what happened in the past. I know what Christ did for my sin. And I know what that means for my future. How about yours?