Over the course of the past several weeks, it has been interesting to watch people change their minds about this novel coronavirus. The general progression seem to have been: “it’s only something that will impact Asian countries” to “a few cases might pop up in my home country, but it will be easily contained” to “well there might be more than a few cases, but it’s not that dangerous” to “I should take precautions because it seems to be more contagious and deadly than I thought” to “I need to stay home 99% of the time because this is the most deadly pandemic of the last century”.
We have seen this shift in our political leaders, in our business leaders, in our community members, in our friends and family, and we probably experienced ourselves. Oftentimes people are criticized for changing their minds; they’re seen as wishy-washy. But, it’s okay to reconsider our opinions and courses of action – especially in matters of life and death. If everyone had continued to think about and respond to this coronavirus now as they did in January, we would be in a much worse position.
As Christians we understand the importance of change. Not only has God changed our lives with the message of the Gospel, but He continues to work His transforming power within us. And we need to be open to the changes He wants to make in our lives, because it is a matter of life and death as well. As Paul says, “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6). May we be receptive to the changes that God brings so that we may enjoy life and peace to the full!