What Will the New Normal Look Like?

I grew up hearing stories of the Second World War, especially from people who had faced the onslaught of the German bombing campaign. Those who lived through The Blitz in London would tell about the terrifying sound of the air raid sirens warning that bombers were on the way. They would tell also of the joy and relief of hearing the all-clear signal when the final plane had turned back and the final bomb had fallen. Following that all-clear, the people would emerge from tube stations, basements, and Anderson shelters, knowing that for now they were safe and that for now they could get back to their lives.

Today we are in the midst of a very different kind of conflict. We are not involved in a war that involves bombs and bombers, but are instead battling an unseen and unseeable virus. In just the past two or three weeks we have witnessed a worldwide tectonic shift in social customs. “Social distancing” has become the new normal and the highest virtue. Gatherings and crowds of any kind are not only forbidden by law, but also in direct contravention of the new social mores. Conferences are canceled, airlines are grounded, malls are shuttered, and grocery stores are metering people in.

We don’t know how long this situation will last, but can be confident that it won’t last forever. Eventually the virus will wane and life will return to some semblance of normalcy. What I have been pondering over the past few days is when and how it returns to normal, and how this “new normal” will differ from the “old normal.” It has been an interesting kind of thought experiment (perhaps to help pass the time).

So how do these lockdowns end, and under what circumstances do we once again confidently emerge into society, gather in crowds, and reduce all this social distancing? I suppose it’s possible that we may soon see the quick discovery of a simple cure. It’s possible we may learn, as some have been suggesting, that the experts have radically misunderstood COVID-19 and made it out to be far more serious than it really is. Or maybe one day the virus will just disappear. Under any of those scenarios, we may soon receive a kind of society-wide “all-clear” signal telling us that the threat is over and we can immediately go back to life as we’ve always known it.

It seems unreasonable to expect that one day soon we will all confidently emerge from our “bomb shelters” and just go back to our lives.

But that seems improbable. It seems unreasonable to expect that one day soon we will all confidently emerge from our “bomb shelters” and just go back to our lives. What seems more likely is that there will be a period of weeks or months in which the threat slowly declines and we together navigate and negotiate “ramping up” into that new normal. I have been considering some of the unanswered questions related to my own life during that ramp-up period. Your questions may be different from mine since your life is different from mine, but I expect there will be at least some overlap.

Some of those questions relate to family life.

• My daughter was offered a temporary leave from her job at a grocery store until they can ensure their employees have the necessary protective equipment and training. My son works at the same store and is due to come off school leave in a few weeks. Under what circumstances will they be comfortable returning to work? What safety measures will they need to see enacted before they can do their jobs in safety and with confidence?
• While I don’t foresee schools opening again this school year, what if they do? Unless the government can convince parents that either they erred in canceling schools in the first place or that the circumstances that necessitated it have been resolved, how many teachers and students will return even if the doors do open? What will have needed to change after the summer to begin a new school year?
• In August, two of my three children are set to attend college in the United States. Will we be comfortable having our children out of the country, knowing how quickly the schools were ordered closed in this last outbreak and knowing that the borders between our countries can now swiftly shut? Will we be able to get them out-of-country health insurance that covers this virus?
• For the next outbreak of COVID-19 or another virus, will governments move even faster so will we have even less time to prepare ourselves, to get ourselves and our children home, and to get ready to hunker down?

And then there are questions related to church.

• Is it possible that we will soon be told we can meet in crowds again, but only if sufficient safety measures are put in place? If so, what are those measures? How many people will want to gather for corporate worship if that involves hand-washing, safe distancing, face masks, and so on? Do churches have the right to demand that people adhere to such measures, or can we only suggest it?
• Once churches are free to gather again, how long will it be before every member is comfortable returning? Are we really a church if the elderly folk still need to stay away, and will they be forgotten once the rest of us can return to normalcy? Do we continue to stream services in that period? Once the doors open, how much should church leaders pressure people to return to services and how much should leaders encourage them to heed their own wisdom and conscience, even if it means staying away for months longer? What if one pastor is comfortable returning and the others are not? What if the majority of congregants are eager to commence corporate worship but the pastor is not?
• When we begin to gather, how do we account for the fact that some people will likely be glad to shake hands and hug while others will still want to maintain distancing? Will we be tempted to look down on people who do or do not wear masks?
• Will we continue to celebrate the Lord’s Supper by passing a plate of little pieces of bread and a tray of little cups of juice that are touched and breathed on by many people? What if we maintain this method but find that some are afraid to take it or are advised not to for reasons of health or immunity? Will Lord’s Supper have to be done in a sterile way?

An important component of my job is travel, sometimes to carry out research and sometimes to speak at conferences.

• How long will it take before the airlines are functioning again? How long will it take before they are fully functioning again? A month ago I could catch a night flight from Toronto and be at almost any major airport in the world by the next day. Today it’s inadvisable to leave Canada and impossible to enter almost any other country.
• Now that we know nations deem it effective to recall their citizens and close their borders during outbreaks, will we have the confidence to travel to other countries, knowing we may be forced to make a quick exit at our own expense or even face getting stuck there? Will the airlines and governments continue to help their citizens with repatriation, or next time will we find ourselves on our own? (See, for example, these stories from American citizens in India.)
• What will change in airports? Just as stringent security protocols followed 9/11, will stringent health protocols follow COVID-19? Will we be comfortable traveling far from home knowing that temperature checks may soon be as common as security checks and that we may not be able to board a plane if we come down with as much as a sniffle or a low-grade fever? Will travel health insurance even cover us if we contract the virus in foreign places? (Canada just passed a ruling that you cannot board a plane if you show any symptoms of COVID-19; you will either need to wait until 14 days have passed or provide a medical certificate proving you do not have it.)
• Airlines make their money by packing people as closely together as possible. Will we be comfortable sitting elbow-to-elbow and knee-to-back, with 400 people packed tightly into a small aluminum tube and sharing a few scuzzy bathrooms? Will we be comfortable eating in such confined quarters? Will every cough in the high-elevation dry air provoke scowls or panic among fellow travelers?

And how about conferences?

• How long will it be before we are ready to gather in big crowds to hear preaching together, not to mention to enjoy singing together? (If ever there was an activity that produces and transmits a massive mist of “droplets,” surely it is the corporate singing of large crowds!)
• If we learn that crowds have been the source of local outbreaks (as, indeed, may have been the case in Milan), will organizations be assuming significant moral or legal liability if their event turns out to be the ground zero of a new outbreak?
• Will ministries even be willing to assume the risk of planning huge conferences? These events accrue massive up-front expenses that are paid for by advance ticket sales. But, as we’ve seen, a pandemic can shut down the conference and require tickets to be refunded. This has left some ministries facing possible bankruptcy.

Those are just some of the questions I’ve got. Am I being alarmist? I kind of hope so. But the way I figure it, if the virus is really so bad that it requires the near-complete shutdown of society, it seems very unlikely that we’ll return to normal quickly and easily. It’s far more probable, I think, that we will have to move slowly and thoughtfully, asking good questions all the while. It’s probable that the world will never quite be the same.

By Tim Challies who serves as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, co-founder of Cruciform Press and popular blogger and commentator.

What Would Martin Luther Say About the Coronavirus

Luther had this to say during the 16th century bubonic plague in an open letter titled "Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague." He counsels how best to practically and spiritually overcome the scourge of his day with a relevant application and timeliness for us today.

"You ought to think this way: "Very well, by God's decree, the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore, I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely." 

In addition, Luther have the following admonition to those who came to different decisions about whether to flee or stay.

"We must pray against every form of evil and guard against it to the best of our ability in order not to act contrary to God, as was previously explained. If it be God’s will that evil come upon us and destroy us, none of our precautions will help us. Everybody must take this to heart: first of all, if he feels bound to remain where death rages in order to serve his neighbor, let him commend himself to God and say, “Lord, I am in thy hands; thou hast kept me here; thy will be done. I am thy lowly creature. Thou canst kill me or preserve me in this pestilence in the same way as if I were in fire, water, drought, or any other danger.” If a man is free, however, and can escape, let him commend himself and say, “Lord God, I am weak and fearful. Therefore I am running away from evil and am doing what I can to protect myself against it. I am nevertheless in thy hands in this danger as in any other which might overtake me. Thy will be done. My flight alone will not succeed of itself because calamity and harm are everywhere. Moreover, the devil never sleeps. He is a murderer from the beginning [John 8:44] and tries everywhere to instigate murder and misfortune.”

Also check out what C.S. Lewis had to say in 1948 that has relevancy to our day as well - HERE

 

On Living in the Age of Corona Virus

C.S. Lewis perhaps can help us a bit to navigate this moment of “health crisis.” In reading what he wrote below in 1948 (from On Living in an Atomic Age), substitute “atomic bomb” with “coronavirus.” It seems this is how we should be known, not only during this crisis, but through our everyday lives. 

“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. "How are we to live in an atomic age?" I am tempted to reply: "Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents."

“In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors - anaesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.”

“This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things - praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts - not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

The Danger of Mixing Faith and Works

“Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” - Galatians 2:16

                                 

If you mix faith and works, if you say, “Yes, I have to have faith in what Jesus has done for me, but I also have to add this or this or this, or I’m not saved,” then you’re saying that what actually saves you is not what Jesus has done, but what you add. It makes you your own savior. 

This illustration might help. Mr. A asked Mr. B to make him a wooden cabinet because Mr. B was a great cabinetmaker. Mr. B and Mr. A were friends, and therefore Mr. B said, “Well, I better make this really good . . . perfect.” So he worked and worked and worked on the cabinet till he got it to the place where it had been buffed and polished to perfection. He brought Mr. A into the workshop to see it, and Mr. A picked up a piece of sandpaper and said, “Let me just add one little stroke.” Mr. B said, “No! It is finished. It’s perfect. And there’s no way to add to it without subtracting from it.” 

It’s the same with Jesus Christ’s work. Because when Jesus died, he said, “It is finished.” There is nothing else to add to it. It’s perfect. And if you add to it, you subtract from it. If you say, “He did this but I have to add this,” anything you add becomes the real basis of your salvation and makes you your own savior. 

The Protestant Reformers made strong biblical arguments that you cannot mix faith and works, that justification and righteousness and salvation must be through faith alone. I won’t make any more of those arguments; I’ll just say this: Personally, I couldn’t live if that wasn’t the case. I don’t have any hope unless I can get up every day and stand on the bedrock knowledge that: 

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

That’s my only hope. 

[by Tim Keller - The New City Catechism]

Prayer
One and Only God, keep us from trusting in good works or living in such a way that we imply they are the grounds of our salvation. Let us glorify your grace by leaning our whole weight upon it, staking our lives on the promise that you are the beginning and the end of our salvation. Amen.