A Slave To Whatever Controls Me
Fear, God, and the Coronavirus
One of the many lasting impacts that the Coronavirus will continue to have on numerous societies, long after the world has been vaccinated, is the deadly toll on people’s mental health. Multiple reports have recently come out demonstrating that adults from a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds have already reported suffering from worsened substance abuse, anxiety disorders, and suicidal ideation in the last year. One survey even indicated that 40 percent of respondents had admitted to recently dealing with an adverse mental or behavioral condition, with most suffering from anxiety and depression. For many people, these symptoms will not just disappear once the virus starts to become contained.
There is a verse in the Bible that I have been thinking about in relation to this. It says: “For you are a slave to whatever controls you” (2 Peter 2:19). Peter is addressing the false teachers that were plaguing the churches in Israel at that time, but the verse seems to stand out on its own. A spiritual truth regardless of the context.
So what controls me then? Well, one way to find out might be to consider what I spend a lot of time thinking about. What do I continually search for on Google? What do I love to daydream about? What do I look forward to most? Or worry about the most? Nowadays, I tend to fill my head with information about the Coronavirus, inundated with the latest case numbers or incidences. Convinced that for some reason I actually need to know all of that stuff. Then there is the continual thought and even threat that my loved ones might contract the virus. As the surveys and research appear to indicate, in these uncertain times, we can easily become slaves to fear, slaves to worry.
We are fragile creatures, humans. We get something in our heads and spend hours chewing over it, even if it’s not good for us to do so. At least I do. Why am I prone to believing the lie that I can’t control what I think about? That somehow I am at the mercy of whatever the media decides to report, and must then think about such things.
There is a wonderful verse in Ephesians 4:23 that encourages Christians to allow the Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes. It is basically saying that my thought life must be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Not by external circumstances. And then Romans 8:6 promises that if my mind is governed by the Spirit then there is life and peace.
I don’t want to be a slave to fear, anxiety or morbidity. When I am controlled by worry then I never really get to live in the present. I am always one hour, day, week or year ahead of myself. I think I would rather be like the apostle Paul, and be a ‘slave to Jesus Christ’. That is how he describes himself in the beginning of most of his letters. He has bound himself to God for life. He is owned by God. The desire for control, to have a say in what comes next, needs to be surrendered. That might not sound like freedom but then I guess I have to trust that I don’t know what is best for me, but that a loving Creator does.
Sources:
20200319_covid19-evidence-and-reccomendations.pdf (blackdoginstitute.org.au)
