Here’s a word about the virus, but I’ll make this brief since I’m neither a medical expert nor an economist.  

I just read an article in The Atlantic (March 23) called “We Need a Hard Pause, Followed by a Soft Start.” It’s about the practicalities of forging ahead with the virus. And WITH the virus is kind of the point. It’s not going away any time soon. We need to co-exist with it as best we can.

If we reboot the economy too soon and recklessly, people will die.
If we wait too long to reboot the economy, people will also die.

According to the BBC just yesterday, at least 90% of India’s workforce is employed in the informal sector–rickshaw pullers, streets vendors, garbage collectors, domestic helpers, and the like. Most are daily workers, meaning they earn enough to feed their families one day at a time. My very dear friends in India just emailed me this… “(We are) very concerned about daily wagers.  If some help is not provided, many will die by starving instead of Covid 19.  Gujarat state has opened shop for poor people.  I hope all states will do that.  Churches are willing to reach out, but many areas have no churches.”

We need churches. We need good government. We all need to bring our “A” game to the table. The world is in the Hard Pause. For some it means inconvenience. For some, literal death.

So wouldn’t it be amazing to use this hard pause to reboot ourselves into a new place? Revitalized US churches that will drop everything to help slum pastors reach their people. Revitalized government that will drop everything petty to focus on finding the best solutions possible. And of course, revitalized “us.”

God is with us. I truly believe that. Here’s a song that speaks to us in our very tough times, like now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de-h4FE1wvA