Soon Donna and I will be taking a brief break and heading to see two of our kids—well, and grandkids!. Not particularly newsworthy, yet we have gotten some interesting responses from some when they find out we’re going to the Dallas area.
Really? Aren’t you afraid? Of what? Ebola of course!
The news media has made it clear this is a horrible situation. We see constant pictures of people in hazmat suits and stories of people being hospitalized and even dying. Thousands of them! It has gone so far that the President of the United States has appointed an “Ebola Czar” to manage the U.S. response to this crisis.
Schools have closed. Hospitals all around the country are scrambling to put the right protocols in place. Doctors’ offices and airline counters are asking personal questions of everyone to be sure no one has Ebola! (I have experienced this personally)
People are afraid. But why? The short answer is because they are being told to be. Not in so many words, but the media, medical professionals, the travel industry—even the U.S. government—are telling us to be afraid by how they slant their stories, how often they report, the words they choose (“The Ebola Crisis!”) and the tone they adopt.
The problem is there is no Ebola crisis (unless you happen to live in Liberia—and even then statistically your chances of getting Ebola aren’t great). There have been a total of two cases of Ebola contracted in the U.S.—both in healthcare workers who had direct contact with the bodily fluids of a patient who contracted the disease in Liberia. And even then the response of the hospital where they worked indicates that the protocols for handling these samples were not strictly followed.
I have a far greater chance of dying on the SoCal freeways any given day than contracting Ebola—even when I fly into Dallas.
But this blog isn’t just about whether to fear Ebola. Of course we should take reasonable precautions (because there are diseases which are far more communicable and which can also be deadly). But what really concerns me is how easily the fear mentality seems to set in—even if it is contrary to known facts. I see this fear mentality in the community, and I see it in the church. And that really scares me.
It scares me because it affects how we think, how we act, and how we feel. It influences our decisions. It affects how we treat others. It even affects whether we respond in love to them, or shrink away in fear!
We who know the Truth, and have seen how often the world—including the media and government—disregard that truth. We who know our ultimate fate. We who know the one who created the world and has the ONLY real authority over life and death. We who know what God has said about life, and death, and resurrection. We who understand the need to love people EVEN IF IT COULD ENDANGER US. We of all people cannot and need not live our lives in fear.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…
So, fear not friends. Act responsibly, love always, and look to God for what–or if–we should fear.