How Should COVID-19 Affect Our Minds?

So...we are kind of in a bit of a pandemic. You know. COVID-19. Most call her the Coronavirus for short. The Coronavirus is something that I personally hadn’t really reacted to until more recently. While dads are scared for the well-being of their family, moms are petrified that their children would be exposed to this virus, and spring-breakers are out partying on the beautiful beaches of Florida, I was chilling at home, not totally caring. I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything. It was kind of nice for me. Over the past handful of days, it’d started to hit me a little more. I started to realize that it should be a little scarier for me, as my grandparents are very susceptible, and I myself, a diabetic, am more susceptible to the virus. The danger of it hit me and fear started to creep it’s way into my mind. Fast forward to this past Monday, and I woke up with a killer sore throat and my blood sugar was out of control. On top of that I saw a news article that said about 56% of our American population already have the Coronavirus, but many have yet to even be tested. I’m a big time over-thinker, and you can imagine the time I spent thinking about all of this. I started to allow fear and ungodliness flood my mind and started to lose track of how good my faithful Father has been to me through this process. I could sit here and write a blog about how there are “5 Tips to Beating This Virus Together!”, but I’m not going to do that because I don’t believe that is the biggest problem. I’m here to discuss our minds and what Scripture says about them. No, this is not a “faith over fear” motivational word, either. Instead, I am going to go over the most important thing we must be conscientious about during this whole Coronavirus thing.

So, what is it? Well, let’s hear from Isaiah in Isaiah 26:3-4, which states, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” ‭(ESV). During a time such as this, we must keep our minds on Jesus, our rock. If Jesus is all we need, then thinking about what would happen if we got the Coronavirus means absolutely nothing in comparison to the Salvation Jesus gives us. It’s because of Him that we are here, and I believe that there is a specific reason why He has us walking through this season of life. As stated in the verses above, when we can keep our minds on Jesus, it is then that we are graced with His peace. The peace of God is not to the equivalence of laying out in the sun with cucumber slices over your eyes, getting a soothing massage from David Hasselhoff, while listening to some good ole’ Bing Crosby. As great as that sounds right now, it is nothing compared to the peace of God. God’s peace offers so much more. Philippians 4:7 states, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” ‭(ESV). It says right there. “Which passes all understanding”. We could never even understand His peace. Sounds pretty cool to me. When we have this peace, our mind, spirit, and body is in complete calmness and allows us to trust in the power of God’s grace. So. During this “paused” season of life, would you challenge yourself to spend more time with your mind on the God of salvation, rather than a stupid virus? Not to say you shouldn’t plan and prepare, but at least don’t let that fill and flood your thoughts and mind. God’s going to do something through all of this, and our best is giving ourselves over to Him. What better way than to start by giving our minds over to our God.

-Jack Hilsher

P.S. I am feeling fine as of now—sore throat is gone. Praise Jesus!