Journal of a Lockdown No. 13

Getting a dose of morning sunshine. (Pero ang Pinoy, ayaw talagang mainitan!)

There's the news that a senator, COVID-19-positive, went to a hospital with his pregnant wife, infecting healthcare workers and effectively closing down the operations of the said institution. I am angry. What pacifies me is the strongly-worded statement released by the hospital: it minced no words and, with clarity, rebuked the senator's actions. Whatever happened to leadership by example?

There's also news that friends from church are hospitalized; one is critical. I am brought to my knees in prayer.

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Dr. Albert Mohler, in his article, The Humbling of Civilization: Praying for the Mercy of God, writes:

As image-bearers of the living God, even the most hardened secularists among us must deal with the most ultimate issues and questions—especially when faced by this kind of life and death challenge.

I've been talking about death and dying, the ultimate questions, to a number of my friends lately. It's a subject I'm comfortable discussing. Most of these friends are doctors and, like me, are used to seeing death on a daily basis. But no other time in my life--in our short lives--has the reality of death been so . . . poignant, so palpable: it can happen to us any time. We've seen it happen to our mentors or to people our age. There's so much uncertainty about the modus operandi of this virus that it is hard to say whether one will die of the disease or not if one gets infected.

 I pray that these uncertain times will make me (and them) think of eternity.

For Christians, this becomes an opportunity to translate some of the proximate questions into ultimate questions. True, we do not know exactly how far the virus will spread or how the history will be recorded. We do not know what kind of announcements will come in the days and weeks ahead. We pray, by God’s common grace through modern medicine, that an effective vaccine will eventually be used to restrain the virus and even conquer it, but we have no clue when that day will come.

The reality is that no vaccine nor human ingenuity will ever overcome the problem of human sinfulness. With all the uncertainty in these troubling times, Christians know that hope, refuge, and peace is found in Christ and in Christ alone. At this time, love for neighbor is pointing a world in chaos to the God who loved us so much that he gave his only Son to die for us.

Dr. Mohler concludes:

Our ultimate refuge is only in the true and living God. We must remind ourselves of that now. We must pray fervently for God’s grace and mercy. And we must share that love to our neighbors and point them to Christ alone as our hope—even if we now share at some distance.