A friend of mine had to cancel lunch this week when her office called an emergency coronavirus meeting. She works in tourism, and as they “freaked out” about the possible hits taken by events, businesses, and attractions in our area, she remarked that should couldn’t imagine my realm at Christianity Today would be affected as much.

But the people and institutions we cover at CT are in a unique position as the outbreak continues.

The church is a gathering place, which means it can fuel the spread of the virus—as we saw with a concentration of hundreds of cases within an apocalyptic sect in South Korea—or, hopefully, it can model safe precautions and care well for the sick in communities.

The church is also global, as we were reminded of this week when Life.Church pastors Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald were quarantined after an event in Germany. As more congregations adjust policies or even cancel large gatherings, we pray that the body of Christ can be wise, faithful, and helpful in its response.

The anxiety around the virus comes just as we have entered the season of Lent, when we are called to pay closer attention to our humanity and our deep need for God.

Jeannie Whitlock reflected what it was like to give up sweets and social media and then become isolated from her community as the virus shut down activity in Seoul. “Lent in the time of coronavirus lays bare my reliance on creature comforts and human contact,” she writes.

Pounded with news reports and our own speculation, we recognize our susceptibility to illness and are prone to worry alongside our neighbors. As believers, we are not promised any sort of exceptional protection from the brokenness, sickness, and death of this world—at least not yet. But our approach to this shared condition must be different.

As Brad Watson writes in Living Through Dying:

Anyone can complain, and practically everyone does. Christians can lament because we have access to the creator of the world and the author of our stories. … Lent is a season of sorrow. More than usual we are aware of the frail and fallen condition of our world and certainly in our own body and soul. Our reflection during this season stirs a deep sense that something is wrong.

As we see the frailty reflected in counts of confirmed cases and death tolls, I hope that we can turn down the freaking out and complaining around us. Lent is a chance to lament before the God who will one day heal us and make all things new.

Kate