Plague Journal (9): Turn, Come, Go

Today my town implements new rules, a tighter lock-down. Although that commonly used phrase, lock-down, is not really accurate. People can go outside, run essential errands to the store or the pharmacy, etc., or even just go for walks, as long as they don't congregate, and as long as they observe the rules of physical distancing, etc.

The U.S. now has more reported cases than any other country, and NYC is clearly the epicenter. And yet, so far, our deaths from the virus are well below China, Italy, and Spain. My question, one of them, is whether we must inevitably follow the track of Italy (the worst-case scenario, so far). That's what a lot of people are saying, but should we be so certain? After all, there are a lot of variations from place to place, country to country. For example, Spain has about 14 times the mortality rate of Germany. The U.S. rate, at this point, is somewhere between, but closer to Germany than to Spain.

There's plenty of material to read on the subject. Everyone has a prediction. Sarah Hoyt makes a host of them here, which have the virtue at least of being interesting. Will bookstores go away forever? Will social distancing become the permanent norm? Hoyt thinks so, but I'm not so sure.

I'm guessing that after this is over towns and cities will have preparedness routines that will go into effect quickly whenever this virus or others like it returns. Such episodes will become a part of normal life, and people (and corporations) will quickly adapt.

But it's all guesswork. Remember the parable Jesus told about the man who was ready for any emergency? It is often called the parable of the Rich Fool.

"The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'what shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?. And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merr."' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'"

The man was guessing things would go on as they always have, but at any given moment, a moment few ever know, our souls may be required of us. Maybe the moral of the story is, "Don't get comfortable."

The Christian, if she has her priorities straight, is prepared to die. That is not the issue. The issue is, what shall we do with the time we have left? There is a call upon our lives, set forth by Jesus in each of the four New Testament Gospels, and elucidated further in the many epistles of Paul and others. The great question for every believer in Jesus is this: have I answered the call? It is not for us to save the world, but it is for us to "redeem the time." Jesus calls us to turn (in repentance), then to come (and learn from him), and then to go (and tell the world about him). Turn, Come, Go.

The American poet, James Wright, famously ended one of his poems with the words, "I have wasted my life." In times like these, perhaps, we are more inclined to be honest with ourselves, and to echo Wright. Here is Jesus, at this point of confessions, saying Turn, Come, Go.