We are living through a time that is unprecedented in the lives of most of us, and perhaps unprecedented, period. Our lives have changed practically overnight and it doesn't look like we're going back to normal any time soon, if ever.
And it's hard to know what to believe about a lot of it too. Disinformation is probably most of the "news" these days. Is the virus really responsible for all those deaths, or is a lot of it conflated with other medical conditions so there is no way to know? The CDC came out a couple of weeks ago with the information that only 6% of the deaths attributed to COVID were clearly the result of COVID, while the rest involved other causes, in such a confused way that there's no way to know the true cause of death. Then there is this unconscionable situation that a drug that could actually stop the virus in its early stages has been politically suppressed and is hardly mentioned at all any more while the death toll is reported every day as if no such remedy exists. We're supposed to be expecting a vaccine which many fear is going to be as dangerous as the virus.
Then there are the protests and the rioting that has been destroying businesses and property in some major cities. The entire protest movement itself is founded on false information. Supposedly it's a protest against systemic racism practiced by police against black citizens during arrest procedures. The information has come out that the actual incidence of deaths by certain police methods is just as common in police dealings with whites, in some cases even more frequent. That information is out there but the protests continue as if it weren't. And at least in Portland the protests regularly turn to violence at nightfall every day while the media continue to describe it as "mostly peaceful." Meanwhile there is this utterly irrational move to get rid of the police altogether as if they were the cause of all the problems. Truly we are living in an upside-down world.
On top of all that, as if it weren't enough, wildfires swept the western US, and are still burning in some places, covering an enormous swath of land. It's been a summer of high temperatures, which happens periodically anyway, which brought on lightning storms as the cause of the fires. Some of it is attributed to global warming but how much should be is hard to determine since the west does go through periodic cycles of heat waves and fire danger anyway. Not to mention that the cause of global warming is still in dispute: how much is due to human causes? There is also the factor of politically/environmentally motivated laws that have cut back on normal fire prevention methods such as the clearing away of fire hazards.
In all these things emotional reactions are provoked as one group blames another with a great deal of righteous passion. Does the wearing of face masks help against the virus or not?: Violence against those wearing them and those refusing to wear them has occurred, and we still don't know for sure whether the argument for or against is the correct one. A couple of California churches, after shutting down for the virus for a few weeks, have gone back to meeting regularly as the threat of the virus was seen to be a lot less dangerous than had originally been anticipated. Yet they are under legal sanctions for their choice to hold services, and are the target of angry accusations. And again we don't really know what the real danger of of the virus really is. So far the churches are free of it though.
The times are chaotic and grave threats in many forms lurk just behind a fragile curtain of social habits, threat of violence, threat of loss of supplies for our everyday needs. Nobody is really starving to death because the government keeps giving economic support, but how long is that going to last? How long before the systems that sustain us can't continue? Some people are stocking up for a future of total breakdown but how many are in a position to do that?
I've personally backed off my usual immersion in the political situation to make a big effort to renew my Christian life. God is the only refuge in such a time. And if the Rapture is right around the corner as it certainly seems it must be, I want to be spiritually strong for it. Otherwise there's not much preparation I'm in a position to do for my own protection or the protection of family and friends.
We're in a waiting pattern. Who knows what is going to happen next?
