How Should Christians Respond to Crisis?

At the time of writing this article, all anyone sees in the news is COVID-19. There is a lot of fear and confusion around the virus and it can become easy for Christians to get caught up in the chaos. We can under-react and pretend like this is going to be gone tomorrow. We can overreact, sell all our 401k stock, and buy a year’s supply of toilet paper. Neither of these options is helpful or really even Biblical.

I have seen many well-tempered and well-informed responses to this crisis from Christians. So many in fact, that I thought that perhaps my writing about this was redundant. But this is a series about engaging life with proper theology and so I decided to give my take on the issue. As always there will be a livestream to discuss. The livestream for this article will be Wednesday April 15th at 8pm EST.

Holy is Your Name

I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up this morning to the news that one of my friends had died in automobile accident. I was crushed. Not just because a friend was gone, but because it just seemed like one more thing. Lately it seems like the world is falling apart. The news is never joyful. My Facebook feed constantly reminds me that humans have more care for animals then they do for each other. My job is full of conflict.

It seems that everywhere I turn I cannot escape the pain and the sin in this world. So this morning when I heard the news I cried. I cried in bed. I took a shower and cried there. I got out of the shower and I cried. And I realized one thing. This world is shifting and untrustworthy. But I serve a God who is holy. I serve a God whose very name is a rock. And this morning I clung to that rock.