Carry your candle, run to the darkness
Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn
Hold out your candle for all to see it
Take your candle, and go light your world
Take your candle, and go light your world
In the past few months, most of the world has been battling a disease pandemic caused by a highly infectious corona virus strain discovered in 2019.
Infections, death-numbers, recoveries, lock-downs, social distancing, WHO protocols, basic hygiene, hand washing, sanitizers, stay safe, etc have very much become common terms in our conversations.
More than enough fear has been generated that could go round the world many times over and for several lifetimes. However, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.
Without the risk of sounding insensitive, there was a world before COVID-19 lock-downs, and there would be a world after it. There could be significant changes in the way the world works, as it has happened in many medical emergencies that humanity has confronted in the past.
Innovations will come up to handle the lessons and peculiarities of its effects. Though in reality, it would not be the same again, for many the world would just move on from where it stopped before the lock-down. Few others would take advantage to make progress in significant ways.
Epidemics and pandemics are not new. Humanity has experienced them repeatedly before now. A few of them are:
– The Great Plague of London- 1665-1666: this was the last major outbreak of the Black Death in Great Britain. It took out about 100,000 people and up to 15% of the total population of London.
– The Spanish Flu- 1918-1920: took an estimated 40-50 million people.
– The HIV/AIDS pandemic- 1981-date: Sub-Saharan Africa/Worldwide up to 25 million souls have perished through AIDS since it began.
– The H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic- 2009-2010: Originating in Mexico spread globally. The virus-infected as many as 1.4 billion people across the globe and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people.
– The West African Ebola epidemic- 2014-2016: It came to pass, infecting about 28,600 and taking the lives of 11,325.
Tremendous inventions and developments in science and industry followed some of these pandemics. Over the centuries, advances and discoveries in medical and other sciences have expanded life expectancy, improved the quality of life and helped humanity to resist and mitigate the effects of these medical emergencies.
The Wuhan virus, as one might want to call COVID-19, has so far been much less in its effect than earlier pandemics, and would hopefully remain so. The difference may be in the manner the news of the disease (not the disease itself) spread around the world, instigating fear and anxiety.
Social Media and major news networks around the world, and then conspiracy theories and Armageddon narratives contributed in no small measure to this anxiety. Fear not!
During the West African Ebola epidemic, there was a similar frenzy and commitment to hand washing and other basic hygiene protocols. Thereafter, people went about their daily lives and patterns as usual.
One lesson we should take home is that we should begin to make basic personal and environmental hygiene a lifestyle, in our personal lives, families and communities, practising them and teaching our children the same. We should develop healthy eating and other habits that keep our immune systems in top form always.
As sad as it might sound, COVID-19 will not be the last of disease attacks that would confront humanity before the end of time. More will come and perhaps more deadly.
If you are a Christian however, you have tremendous hope. A hope not regulated by the circumstances or events in this world. It is a hope that gives peace even in times of turmoil. It is a hope we ought to share with a confused and fearful world. It is a time to show kindness and care and to share. Above all, there is no better time than now to share the hope of the Good News our Lord offers to a dying world.
As I was preparing to write this, blog I came to an article I had written to an email audience in 2009 narrating an experience I had at the time. I share an edited version with you here:
In recent weeks, I have been planting a church in Igwuruta, a budding town on the fringes of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. I began publishing a little four-paged bulletin titled “A More Sure Word,” two months before the actual church planting, which we distributed door-to-door in the area.
After the distribution of the second edition, I received a phone call from a young girl living in a small town called Omagwa, which is about 15 minutes drive from Igwuruta. She had given her life to Christ after reading a copy she had seen at a shop near her home. Interestingly, we did not distribute copies at Omagwa.
Through my phone number printed on the bulletin, she kept calling me for about three weeks before I could make time to go there. Vera (not her real name), a secondary school student, was the youngest in a family of seven children and a mother. Their father had died several years earlier. Vera never knew him.
Evil spirits disturbed Vera’s mother. “I’ve known her that way since I was a child.” Vera would later tell me. In my presence, while I spoke with them, their mother at a point exclaimed in their local dialect, “Can’t you see the spirits that are here?” I asked one of her sons to interpret what she had said.
As I spoke with them, I saw the enthusiasm in Vera’s eyes. She seemed to soak every word like a sponge. The entire family was excited listening to a stranger teach from the Bible.
After speaking and asking the entire family to receive Christ, I asked the mother if she would want to be free, “Yes I want to be free, how could anyone want to be disturbed by these spirits?” I prayed for her deliverance.
Ever since then I have pondered the entire episode. On the very day, I had hesitated to go because of being ‘tired’ and ended up getting there in the evening.
In my contemplations, I have thought about when Jesus began His ministry to “the regions of Zebulon and Naphtali… The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned” I have recollected the Lord saying that ‘you are the light of the world and you cannot light a candle and put it under a basket.
Every one of us as believers is a light to our world, which is our sphere of influence. Sometimes God would want us to go to the fringes of our world. Always, He wants us to light our candles, go to the darkness to reach out to the helpless the confused and bound, to share the gospel here, and to give a word of encouragement there, touching weary hearts.
Occupied with so many commitments for about three weeks and exhausted on that particular day, but am I glad I finally went. There are several Veras’ around you eager for the light.
In times like this, we are tempted to focus on our families and ourselves. In my current study of past pandemics, I discovered that after one of them, a very large population of a city became Christians. Everyone doing his or her own part, we can replicate that, can’t we?
We can plan to be effective in that after the lock-downs or reach out through means that do not compromise social distancing, such as online. Thankfully, we have not quarantined our phones and other communication devices!
Do not put your candle under a basket. As the lyrics in the song, written by Christopher Rice admonishes, you must “Take your candle, and go light your world.”
Thank you. Do not forget to keep living, loving and learning!
References: II Timothy 1:7; Matthew 4:13-17; 5:13-16. (NKJV)
Go Light Your World: Songwriter: Christopher M. Rice – Go Light Your World lyrics © Capitol Christian Music Group.
Source of Pandemic Statistics: https://www.livescience.com/worst-epidemics-and-pandemics-in-history.html
Very interesting. Keep it up sir.