Can anything good come out of Covid?

The pandemic has been dragging on for a long time. It is easy to be tempted to a feeling of weariness and to wonder is there ever going to be an end to it? This is entirely understandable. It is so easy to end up feeling empty, jaded, dejected.

How can I keep my balance in all this? How can I find some light at the end of the tunnel? Where can I see a bit of hope? Will there be some good that I can take from all this?

It is no harm to realise that pandemics are not new in world history. In fact there have been plagues and epidemics down through the centuries. They were part of normal life. They should not shock us. In the sixth century there was the bubonic plague and the Black Death in the fourteenth century. Mozart most likely died from a  streptococcal infection during an epidemic in Vienna. The way in which Christians responded to plagues in setting up hospitals for the care of the sick caused many to be converted. (Rodney Stark details this in his book The Rise of Christianity.)

Closer to our own times we know of the Spanish ’Flu. The Spanish ’Flu occurred during and just after the First World War and it was most inconvenient for the authorities of countries involved in the war to admit there was a ’flu epidemic while trying to keep up morale for the war effort. So the authorities simply kept it quiet. Spain as a neutral country was in a different position. The Spanish authorities kept public records about the spread of the ’flu and so the epidemic which had in fact been widespread across Europe became known as the “Spanish ’Flu”. It is interesting to note the role of the State in this particular case in the managing of the health information. So plagues and epidemics are not new.

 And they are completely outside of an individual’s control. Neither you nor I can solve a pandemic. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the torrent of negative statistics which pour forth from media outlets. I have met several people who have literally switched off and can no longer bear to listen to the news. Again this is entirely understandable. But it is no harm to make a distinction here between what is outside of my control and what is within it. There are things which are within my control. There are things which I can do and indeed the vast majority have been doing since all this began. We have all been careful about social interaction, hand hygiene, mask-wearing, etc. These are things within my control. I cannot turn around the course of the pandemic. My part is not to solve the entire situation but to do what is within my power in order to make the situation better. I am not responsible for the entire response to the pandemic but I do have a responsibility to play my part and to trust that my efforts are making a difference. Good things are happening. More good things will happen. I am and can be part of those “good things”. The pandemic also helps us to cut out things of minor importance. In times of crisis we see more clearly the things which are essential, the things which really matter.

The real issue is not to solve the whole situation in which I find myself but to respond in practical ways which are within my control. All around us we can see good things which have happened in the past two years.

Thankfully these good effects are numerous: neighbours reaching out to neighbours in need, the heroism of frontline workers from bus drivers and shop assistants, to healthcare workers to chaplains, teachers, priests, etc. We have seen creativity and innovative action in all kinds of areas. While there has been huge pressure on families I am sure too that many families have come closer together and have rallied round because the situation demanded it. New skills have been learned, creative ways of solving old problems have been found, happy memories have been made despite the great losses and the pain.

St Paul when writing to the persecuted and harassed Christians of Rome in the middle of the first century (Romans 8:28) wrote: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”

We can take good things out of any and every situation.

In the life of Jesus, He takes the most terrible event in human history and turns it to good. Maybe the pandemic can be a spur to realise some new good in my life. Maybe the pandemic will be the time when for me the penny dropped and I realised that I had been living an aimless life. Maybe covid shook my world so much that I finally got my act together. Maybe in years to come I will look back on 2020, 2021 and 2022 and see those years as a time of change in the way I looked at life. Maybe my faith was lukewarm or my commitment to my family was lacking but I “got off the fence” and did something about it. I cannot change the course of the pandemic but I can respond in creative and loving ways.