Photo by Bogdan Iorga on Unsplash
We began this month with fasting and prayer “that the
present pandemic may be controlled, caregivers protected, the economy
strengthened, and life normalized.” I
see our prayers in the process of being received and answered, and I feel to
rejoice that there is a God who hears and who receives our prayers of
faith. I have long known, from much
personal experience, that He does. I am
seeing it yet again, as I believed that I would. I expect that you, too, are seeing the signs
of the Spring of Relief.
With each new set of hard
data of what is really happening, the dire predictions from so many, that
frightened so many, are revealing themselves to be well beyond the mark. That is cause for general celebration (I do
not understand why some are angered by it).
Sickness rates and mortality rates continue to decline, approaching
levels consistent with seasonal experiences.
Those most vulnerable are becoming easier to identify and protect.
The realized effects of the pattern of the disease offer growing cause
for relief and hope for the many, even while we join in sympathy for those most
afflicted by this flu strain, just as our hearts sympathize for all who suffer
from the numerous ailments and sicknesses that are part of mortality. No one of us is left unaffected by sickness
for ourselves and loved ones.
The reality of the epidemic has wonderfully been falling far
short of the dire predictions, for which we are grateful. On the other hand, the economic experience
has been as bad or worse than predicted.
Here the real numbers are also coming in. I recall one estimate from the first of the
month, considered then by some to be high and exaggerated. The anticipated dark cloud was that by May there would be 27 million
Americans unemployed by the Great Cessation and other effects of the
state-ordered shutdowns. By Thursday,
April 23, the number of Americans applying for unemployment had reached 26
million, a number that does not include those who remain employed but whose business and income are
fractions of normal. Of those who had work
just a few weeks ago, today one in six do not.
No government in known history has ever
done this to its own people. As the Great Cessation was put in place by government
action—not by the disease itself—it is an encouraging sign that government leaders are increasingly taking
action to restrengthen the economy and to allow the most powerful engines of
economic strength, the business operators and employees themselves, to begin
the steps to return to the normal processes of enterprise. This is only just
beginning, and it needs to be encouraged.
Will Rogers is credited with saying, “If stupidity got us
in this mess, how come it can't get us out.”
Governments can block economic activity; they are poor at generating economic growth. They lack expertise and incentives for
it. But they can repair some damage, and they can remove the barriers they erected, to which more government leaders—at local,
state, and federal levels—are turning their attention.
These are all trends to celebrate, replacing anger and despair
with gladness and hope, a Great Awakening for us in which to be engaged. Bring it on.
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