C.S. Lewis fought (and was injured) in WW1 and lived through the The Blitz of WW2 in the UK. During the terrible days of WW2, he gave a sermon titled “Learning in War Time”. If anyone could speak with an air of authority on the world seemingly coming to an end right before our eyes, it is Lewis. In this sermon, Lewis lays out the way we humans should respond to our present situation dealing with our current worldwide crises. And while he is speaking specifically about war, his words can also be applied to the many troubles we see today.
“I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective, The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it.
Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with “normal life”. Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of cries, alarms, difficulties, emergencies.
Plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying injustice put right. But humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons. They wanted knowledge and beauty now, and would not wait for the suitable moment that never come.”
(Read the full sermon here: https://bradleyggreen.com/attachments/Lewis.Learning%20in%20War-Time.pdf)
This darkness that has come for the world in 2020 isn’t new. The world has always been dark. There has always been injustice and sickness and disease and death and starving and crying and murder and pain. This year, that darkness didn’t just suddenly materialize, it was simply exacerbated.
And, for this reason, I believe this is why Scripture tells us over and over again to let not our hearts be troubled, do not worry, guard your heart, let the peace of Christ dwell in you, and on and on and on. When our hope is in this world, we will always be disappointed. When our hope is in the only One who can save us, and in a greater world to come, then the peace of Christ will dwell in us.
– R.W. Reed
(P.S. This is not to take away from how serious the virus is and the lives that have been affected by it. All necessary precautions should still be taken. This is simply a reminder to not let this dominate our minds to the point that we live in a constant state of fear and anxiety about what will happen next.)
R. W. Reed 