April has been a devastating month for the U.S. By the time this column is published, the number of deaths will likely have exceeded 55,000. To put that in perspective, the number of American casualties in the Viet Nam war was 58, 220. And the “attack” of the coronavirus pandemic on U.S. soil began only a few months ago.
The debate over reopening the economy continues. More than 97% of the US population is currently under a stay-at-home or shelter-in-place order. About 1/3 of all states are now experimenting with reopening. It’s different in each state, though Georgia is the most aggressive, where hair salons, gyms, and tattoo parlors reopened last week, and restaurants and movie theaters this week.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is taking steps to reopen the healthcare sector in the state. Kentucky began phase one on April 27, which will include restarting diagnostic, radiology, non-urgent, in-person, office and ambulatory visits.
“We are also going to allow pre-aesthesia testing services to restart in preparation for the surgical ramp up,” Gov. Beshear said. His “Healthy at Home” order, issued on March 25, is in effect indefinitely.
So, is there light at the end of the tunnel?
America’s most trusted scientific spokesperson, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on April 15, “I’m a very cautious person, but we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.”
Make sure you underscore his words, “cautious,” for on April 22, he added, “We will have the Coronavirus in the fall.”
The medical/scientific community has repeatedly warned us that reopening the economy too soon might incite another wave of the disease in the fall, if not sooner, that could once again tax healthcare systems and workers.
And so, while some are demanding an immediate reopening of the economy, others cry, “not so fast.”
I’m reminded of American poet, Robert Lowell’s statement, “The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train.”
You shouldn’t be surprised that you can purchase a T-shirt with that quote on it. It speaks to our fears, our vulnerabilities—not just about the current mess we are in, but also to life in its more expansive reality.
We want to hope, but we fear that our hopes are an illusion, or worse, part of a grand cosmic joke played on us, the fools.
Is the light a beacon showing us the way to freedom or the light of impending disaster?
If we never step out in faith, how can we know?
Yet faith is not a “blind faith,” that is, a faith that disregards God’s principles in life and nature. I can muster all the faith I can in an effort to convince myself that if I jump off a 10-story building, God will swoop down and catch me. But, the very world God created, with gravity, discounts my “faith.”
If I only look inside myself, I have to depend on my personal experience and fluctuating emotions.
So, I choose to rely on God’s Word, where the Scriptures tell me there is a light I can trust, a light that has overcome the darkens. That light, according to John’s gospel, is Jesus Christ: “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it”(John 1:4-5).
I must still take a step into that light, a step that requires faith. And faith sees what is not yet totally visible. As American theologian, William Lane Craig, has observed, “God has given evidence sufficiently clear for those with an open heart, but sufficiently vague so as not to compel those whose hearts are closed.”
The light of Christ may not tell me when to reopen the economy, but it will tell me how to live victoriously in the midst of whatever may befall me, for the light did overpower the darkness, in an ultimate sense.
And that is the way to freedom out of the darkness, through that tunnel called life. None of us are getting of here alive. But, no matter how it ends this side of eternity, the train has been derailed, the light shines.