A Chicken Little World
I think the topic of this current virus is one of much controversy and debate. There's truth to it and people are legitimately sick and for that we must pray, but something that strikes me about all this is the hype and hysteria that is following the wake of illness. Illness can be a terrifying thing, it can take over our lives or the lives of those we love, and it brings us down a road that can often be filled with unknowns . . . but it is not the end and things may very well not be as bad as they seem.
It is becoming a chicken little world, in the sense that someone is saying the sky is falling...and the result is utter chaos and confusion. People are forgetting to be calm and rational about it all, even if there are unknowns. I love this quote above, "when it rains, look for rainbows, when it's dark, look for stars." Even if the sky is falling, there are still positive things to focus on.
I listened to a talk recently where a priest said one of the devil's tactics is to turn a person's focus on "anything but God." Are we turning to God during this time, are we praying more, are we trusting that God is bigger than our troubles? It seems that the focus is on worry, calamity, and suffering, rather than on God. I don't want to belittle this situation as simply a distraction, but it kind of is. It's giving the problem more power than it deserves.
So, find a rainbow amidst the rain and a star lighting up the sky because that forces you to look up and beyond what is below.