Dipo Olowookere
By Nneka Okumazie
It is possible to say that COVID-19 is – currently – the ultimate fuel of anxiety. The blizzard of stories of something gone wrong somewhere have overtaken – individual or structural – fears on many hearts.
What does this respiratory pathogen hold? This question connects to time, place and commerce.
Some are crumbling under the weight of it – fearing what hasn’t come upon them, or what may.
Some are counting losses, separations, etc. and no one seems to understand.
The anxiety is real, but some started equating the COVID-19 situation to hell.
Yes, it’s grim, but the metaphor of hell, used for experiences most times, is probably wrong.
Hell, in the real description of what it is, has no semblance to COVID-19.
It is true that lots of people face massive hardship and all sorts of struggles, but hell is thrown out early or cheaply, in description of situations.
No one wants hell, at least the hell people say and describe. So how come if people know the possibility of the ultimate hell, doing what it takes to avoid it seems stressful?
[Matthew 10:28, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.]
The Creator can love and judge.
There are all kinds of cataclysmic descriptions of COVID-19, but life will return to what it was – afterwards.
Normally, life is hard, but life is hope.
Many people have health hardships, economic, etc. similar to what threatens others with COVID-19. But there has always been the important message of eternal hope.
If someone puts hope in something, and that thing begins to crumple, or does, it is hard to predict the ensuing negative reaction.
There have been warnings in the past, not to put hope on anything on earth, because everything is subject to uncertainty, as seen now with COVID-19.
[Matthew 6:20, But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:]
Yes, seems impractical to live life without something to hope on, or to bring happiness to life and the mind, especially on things that considered valuable in the world, but dependency on those, because of their susceptibility to failure or staleness, points to the lack of wisdom.
Money for example is good, but in certain situations money is often the problem when there is none; as soon as there is, so many other problems become apparent, outsizing the previous problem.
There are incurable diseases regardless of wealth. There are failing corporations with great lines of credit. There are – lots of money is available, but we don’t know what to do, situations.
Christ continued talking about heaven and hell. Jesus, the wisest, knows what He’s saying, even if it doesn’t make sense to human rationality.
As a fact, human rationality – through history – is full of mistakes.
And recently, on social media, people react to things in different ways, or think about it in a certain way, only to find out how wrong they were.
People who are sure of what they know often disdain those they say are clueless.
Though may sound grotesque to say, but everything that naturally matters to every human, position, power, lust, etc. are worthless in death.
Intemperate battles to satisfy those are plain vanity.
[1 Peter 1:24, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:]
Divine living options are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.
For those that have chosen the hope of glory in Jesus should remember His word.
[Revelation 1:18, I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.]
