What Faith Looks Like in a Pandemic
In the fall of 2020, I wrote this while schools were trying to reopen on shaky ground. Rules kept changing, rumors spread, and the anxiety was thick. What stood out to me wasn’t just the uncertainty—it was how fear and faith kept showing up at the same time. Those same choices don’t disappear with the pandemic; they follow us in every season.
In less than 2 weeks, I will walk back into my school building with other teachers for the first time since early March. That, of course, is subject to change because plans are apt to be revised when your school is near the epicenter of a COVID-19 hotspot.
Recently, a teacher from another part of the state asked me how firm our local districts’ plans were. I responded that most local districts’ plans were detailed and firm, but the plans were built on a foundation of Jell-O. Any little wind of change could completely upset plans that took countless hours to formulate.
Pandemic Anxiety
It is a given that these plans will not please everyone and a recent informal poll of a teachers’ group I lead indicated that 80% of teachers were suffering “a considerable amount of anxiety” over the prospects of returning for face to face classes.
I did not attempt to break the respondents down into demographic groups, but I do know many of my fellow Christian teachers told me they were struggling with anxiety. Moreover, I have been battling anxiety personally, as I am in a high-risk group.
I have heard some Christian teachers express the view that they were not anxious about the prospects of catching the coronavirus. Some take it farther and convey the idea that no believer should fear to work in a potentially virus-rich environment. It seems like a spiritually perceptive statement, but is it?
Honoring God in Faith
Obviously, we could look at any choice and say that no matter what, we can trust God to protect us. For example, suppose I decide to walk across a busy 5-lane interstate highway just after sundown. Would that be a smart, God-honoring choice?
In the wilderness, Satan tempted Jesus three times. The third temptation is found in Luke 4, verses 9 -12:
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.”
A Lack of Faith or Being Wise
Anxious teachers across the country have been trying to get their local schools to reconsider the push for face-to-face instruction. Is advocating for a less risky teaching environment, a tacit lack of faith in the Almighty? After Paul had his transforming Damascus road experience with God, he began to publicly preach Jesus as the risen Messiah. Scripture tells us that the transformation of Saul from a zealous persecutor of Christians to Paul, the fervent disciple of Christ, baffled and enraged the powerful Jewish leaders in town, and as a result, they plotted to kill him. In Acts 9, we are told, “Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.”
How did Paul and company respond? Did he march boldly out to the city gates and face the assassins firm in his trust of God?
No, Luke tells us how Paul’s followers took him out at night and lowered him in a basket through a hole in the wall. Some might look at that passage and criticize Paul for a lack of faith, but that requires us to come to the scriptures with a preconceived notion that faith in God always looks the same. Sometimes faith involves running away.
After Jesus’ birth, an angel of the Lord told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and flee into Egypt to avoid the murderous Herod.
A Christian Response to the Pandemic
I am not attempting to tell any believer how they should respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. Clearly, there are times we must stand our ground in faith like David facing Goliath, but there are other times when wisdom might occasion a different response. Many years after the Goliath encounter King David, who the Bible calls “a man after God’s own heart”, bolted out of Jerusalem in fear of his homicidal son, Absalom.
Whatever our decisions in this time of this pandemic, we need to lift up and encourage others whether they are believers and not. In doing so, we are sharing the grace that God has poured out on us.
