swine flu and providence

The swine flu is big in the media at the moment. Some are protesting that it's a bit too big, generating a bit too much hype and fear given that from some angles this simply appears a storm in a teacup. I've read that 36,000 Americans die a year from the run of the mill flu. Flu is something we live with, so is the media just hyping this up? Why the level 5 "imminent pandemic" rating from WHO?

Working in the healthcare sector at the moment, it appears that the Government and health industry is taking this seriously. There are major concerns going on here. And if not this flu, many in this profession think it is simply a matter of time before a strain comes along that will take serious toll, be a global pandemic.

So where does God fit in all of this?

It struck me on my way home, as I warily assessed the coughing passenger beside me on the bus, that we think we're invincible. Yes there are risks associated with our first world lives, but they're calculated risks; driving a car we know the road tolls, we embrace adventure sports, we overeat and overdrink and smoke. There are risks, but we know them, and decide whether or not to take them. Such are our first world lives. We are in control, or so we think. In the third world there are risks, but we, with our money, can avoid largely avoid these. We drive large cars to protect our families, buy strong houses to protect our things, invest in health insurance to protect our health, and trust our legal system for the rest. We don't reasonably fear kidnapping or blackmail or corrupt police, we don’t fear being bombed or shot at.

But this isn't truth.

Entire civilisations before us have had the same belief in their invincibility. You just need to visit Rome to see the remnants of a civilisation that was invincible. Or think of the black plague. The short sighted assuredness such civilisations had, that 'this', everything we have known all our lives, everything that is so much more than what has gone before, couldn't possibly be destroyed, is well and alive today.

Perspective.

So, as I sit here and ponder a flu pandemic, it strikes me how fragile is this life that I view as invincible. How precious and fleeting are the things that I consider everyday and ordinary. It puts into perspective how foolish we are to believe in our, in our ‘civilisations’, invincibility. To not walk everyday with an awareness of the creator God of the universe who transcends all rises and falls of the ‘invincible’, to not live acting as if each day could be our last, before we must stand and give account for our actions. This is foolishness.

So where is God in the midst of this? I don’t believe that God promises us safety, a cotton wool blanket for any of us, good or bad or the in between. People quote things from the Bible left right and centre to the contrary – “don’t worry, God will provide, keep you safe”. But the reality is that the Bible is a book written in context, and context considered, the Bible does not at all promise us that we will not experience pain and suffering, or be miraculously kept from harm. On the contrary, it is a book that deals with the reality that we surely will.

If a pandemic ensued, so many would be outraged that God would allow their loved one to suffer, their lives to be put in danger. But look around – look at the world, third world lives are lost and put in danger every day. Life is cheap in so many countries. People are murdered, raped, robbed commonly, without even redress. Why do we subconsciously consider our lives to be worthy of different treatment? A theology which does not take the reality of life into account, is simply not an honest theology, or a thoroughly ignorant one.

A pandemic killing multitudes would be a tragedy beyond description. But in the midst, there would be God, a God of eternity, a God to whom this life is but the blink of an eye. A God who is not immune to our sufferings, who suffers with us, but is the “I Am”, a living reminder that there is more to this life, life past this life, and that there is life beyond imagination in him.