Hope in Times of Crisis
It’s funny how quickly the course of our world can change.
A couple of weeks ago, life was perfectly normal, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and we had an abundance of toilet paper. Then a virus sharing the same name as a beer that people enjoy on sunny days at sandy beaches pops up and sends everyone in a panic, barricading themselves into their homes. A running joke is that this whole situation sounds like a third-grader narrating an absurd story from their boundless imagination, “So, there was this one virus that got a lot of people sick, and then everyone ran out of toilet paper, and then there was no more school, and then it started snowing!” The randomness of this whole situation can be quite humorous. The jokes may be lighthearted, however, the situation itself speaks in a grave and heavy tone.
The emergence of Corona Virus or Covid-19 brought an inordinate amount of fear and uncertainty along with it. With something so fresh and misunderstood, people just aren’t sure what the impact will be. You have entire countries going into quarantine (TIME), people being furloughed (POLITICO), and a virus with very dangerous qualities (CDC). Not to mention normal everyday activities rolling to a screeching halt with schools and businesses closing their doors. This situation is a breeding ground for fear. Justifiably so, because we want to protect ourselves and the ones we care about. A storm is brewing on our doorstep and we are just starting to understand how intense it will be.
With all the darkness closing in around us, how do we move forward? We as people are very good at recognizing the ominous storm cloud moving toward us, but we fail to see the rainbow that it leaves at the end of the downpour. We envision all the terrible things that could possibly happen to us, but we can’t even begin to paint a slight picture of the good that could emerge from and during this pandemic. I’m not advocating for complete and oblivious optimism because that’s just ignorance and ignorance may be bliss, but eventually, ignorance is what gets you killed. Instead, I advise you to look for hope during these times. Look for the light at the end of the tunnel because we need a direction to move forward in. If there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, then we are just stumbling aimlessly in the darkness.
Hope gives you something to aim for, but where does one find hope, especially in a situation like this? Well, thankfully, hope can always be found, no matter how bleak things may be. This may sound a bit cliche, but it is an irrefutable truth. It is irrefutable because our world carries both an infinite potential for evil and an infinite potential for good. It is also true, because everything in our world has a flaw and even the flaws have their own flaws, so the greatest evils can still be overcome. I think a good example of this is Corry Ten Boom’s story, who was a survivor of the Holocaust. So, if you accept hope as being an irrefutable truth, then hope can never die. Therefore, you should let hope guide you through the darkness because even though it may be hard to find, it will always be there.
If you need hope, we are here for you!
Written by Caleb Goodwin
