Big Idea #1 From me
If you’ve noticed, I’ve not written anything explicitly about the COVID-19 pandemic.
This doesn’t mean I’m trivializing the whole situation.
As a man of science, I’ve been taking necessary precautions to reduce the probability of being infected.
But as a man of science with a Christian worldview, here’s my two cents about the currently unfolding events:
1. God is a good God and He always has an agenda.
This means two things: (a) God did not cause the Coronavirus to happen. He’s not using the virus to punish the sins of humanity. Coronavirus is happening because we live in a fallen world. It’s the same thing that plays out when droughts, famine, fires, etc. happen. (b) Coronavirus did not catch God unawares. It’s not like God was planning something and then the virus came from nowhere to ruin his plans. No, God always has His Ultimate agenda and His agenda will always come to fruition.
2. God’s agenda and systems for executing His plans are robust.
This also means two things: (a) In times of certainty, there are absolutely zero downsides to being sensitive to His agenda, and, (b) In times of uncertainty (like this season), aligning with God’s system is the surest foundation upon which you can build your life. That’s the way the economics of God’s Kingdom works, as opposed to the world system which crashes as the slightest hint of unpredictability.
Big Idea #2 From Research
In the journal paper titled, “Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Communication”, Paul Slovic and his colleagues asked some mental health experts to determine whether it was safe to discharge a psychiatric patient, Mr. Jones, who had a history of violence.
The mental health experts were divided into two groups.
To experts in group 1, they were told that people similar to Mr. Jones had a 10% chance of being violent again after being discharged.
On the other hand, those in group 2 were told that out of every 100 patients similar to Mr. Jones, 10 were likely to be violent after being discharged.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
At the end of the experiment, experts who received information in the form of numbers (Group 2) were two times more likely than experts who received the same information in the form of percentages (Group 1) to deny the discharge.
Simply put, because of the way the information was presented to them, experts in Group 2 were twice as likely as experts in Group 1 to see Mr. Jones as a threat to society.
My key takeaway is that the motives of the information-bearer largely determines the manner in which information will be presented to you.
There’s an indication that if people want to play up the significance of a particular statistic, they are more likely to present it to you as raw numbers.
For instance, telling people “1 out of 1000 people who eat XYZ will get cancer” tends to be taken more seriously than saying “0.1% of people who eat XYZ will get cancer”.
Be wise in your information consumption during this period.
Big Idea #3 From the Bible
2 Chronicles 26:5 says, “And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper”
The distinguishing factor in Zechariah’s life was his understanding in the visions of God.
This doesn’t merely mean that Zechariah could see visions and dream up dreams.
It’s deeper than that.
It means Zechariah was in tune with God’s agenda per time and was able to interpret this agenda to king Uzziah, who is turn took appropriate actions and ended up prosperous.
In times of uncertainty, the world is always searching for interpreters who can make sense of the times and seasons.
Understand: Trends will pass, fads will wither, but those who can interpret God’s agenda will remain irreplaceable.
May the LORD give you understanding in these things
