Navigating Uncertainty
We are getting a lot of information about COVID 19 and the economy from many different sources. Early into the pandemic, I received an email, allegedly from Stanford University, telling us how to avoid getting the corona virus. If we would sip warm water every 15 minutes, according to this email, any virus in our windpipes would be washed down into our stomachs and be killed by the acids there. Shortly after receiving this email (which I am embarrassed to say I sent to several friends) I received another email that the Stanford email was not from Stanford and contained false information.
Then, a friend sent me another email with some predictions supposedly from the seer, Nostradamas, that the virus in the “twin year” (2020) would ruin the world. This friend, who did what I did and sent this out to his friends, quickly sent another email within twenty four hours of the first one, telling us that someone had researched Nostradamas’ writings and no such prediction was ever made.
How do we know what is true and what isn’t? How do we know how all this will end?
The short answer is we don’t.
Uncertainty is uncomfortable. I can’t even read a story where the hero or heroine gets into deep trouble without feeling uncomfortable. Will they get out of this jam alive? I cheat and read the last chapter in the book so I know the main character is alive at the end and then I can read the rest of the book.
We can’t do that. We don’t know how this story will end, so what do we do? Here are some things I have found that help me:
1. Celebrate what is certain. I am writing this on St. Simons Island, GA. Every day the tide comes in and goes back out. Every day the sun comes up and sets. Every year the flowers bloom in the spring. Every April temperatures begin to rise and days get longer. We have a world governed by natural laws that we can count on.
2. Remember we aren’t the only generations to face a pandemic. Why should the generations alive today escape? Plagues have affected people for thousands of years. Moses and Aaron had to pray for deliverance from plagues that affected the Israelites in the wilderness several times. Moses, in writing the 91st Psalm, assured the children of Israel that God would deliver them from the “deadly pestilence," and in covering them with His wings, they would not fear the “pestilence that stalks in darkness.”
3. Be glad we do know some things about the virus that are certain. It spreads when we touch something with the virus on it and then touch our face. We can get it if we are in a contained space with airborne particles for more than a few minutes. Medical personnel seem to agree on these matters. Therefore, we must wash or sanitize our hands every time we touch anything that might have the virus on it and wear masks if we go into stores, getting out as quickly as possible. And, we can just stay home, using delivery services to pick up needed items at the store. We can do these things to protect ourselves.
4. Enjoy the silver linings the virus brings - more time with families and spouses, more opportunities to check in with friends and shut-ins, more opportunities to creatively help and encourage others, more time to try new recipes or learn new skills. I read that Shakespeare wrote King Lear, Macbeth, and Anthony and Cleopatra while theaters in Elizabethan England were closed during a plague.
5. Take one day at a time. Even without a pandemic, we live with uncertainty. Will our job or business survive? Will our retirement resources last as long as we do? How will we pay the bills when our income decreases? The crowd to whom Jesus preached His famous Sermon on the Mount must have faced uncertainly as well. Why else would Jesus have told them to stop worrying and remember how God cares for the birds and lilies? “God knows your needs,” He said. “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Just take one day at a time.”