The Beginning of the End

In John 16:20 Jesus told his followers about an imminent change to which they could look forward with rejoicing..."You're going to be in deep mourning while the godless world throws a party. You'll be sad, very sad, but your sadness will develop into gladness." This verse reminds me of today's circumstances.

In the middle (we hope) of this pandemic, some are ignoring the mandates and guidelines and are continuing to party as though life had not changed. They are reasoning that certainly Mother Nature has not thrown us a vicious curveball. Others are in mourning. Most of us are in some degree of sadness. God promises that this will end and our sadness will turn to gladness. We are distancing, quarantining, washing, masking-up when we must go out, and praying. The numbers should tell us when the curve is leveling. We are hopeful that both the health and economic recoveries are just around that distant corner. We trust the beginning of the end arrives sometime this month.

from Wikipedia

As frequently occurs in these blogs, a memory popped into my head. Back in the Fifties Peter Graves starred in one of those Sci-Fi Classics that I rewatch from time to time.The movie's title was The Beginning of the End. Graves' role was that of a scientist whose experiments had gone horribly awry creating a hoard of giant, mutant, carnivorous locusts. The bugs proceeded to lay siege to Chicago. The world was next on their Invade and Eat List. Only through the ingenuity of science was the star of the original Mission Impossible series and Airplane! farces able to match soundwaves to the locusts incessant squealings and drown them in Lake Michigan. The global locust pandemic was quickly averted.

I believe the power of prayer and perhaps the God-given intelligence of some of mankind will lead to the timely demise of the Coronavirus. Even if we can't turn our own sadness to gladness, we must have faith that God can and will.  This is NOT the beginning of the end. Together we must continue to fervently pray and wash.

Overreacting

I was recently intrigued by the expression, "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face." Overreacting can be needlessly self destructive. Apparently the saying had its beginning as early as the 9th century. Wikipedia explains that there are numerous stories of pious women disfiguring themselves in order to protect their virginity.

One such legend is that of Saint Ebba. She was the Mother Superior of the monastery of Coldingham Priory in Scotland. In A.D. 867 news came of Viking pirates raiding nearby villages. She gathered her nuns and urged them to disfigure themselves to appear unappealing to the marauders. The goal was to protect their chastity. She demonstrated this by cutting off her nose and upper lip. Her nuns quickly followed suit. Upon arrival the Vikings were so disgusted that they burned the entire building to the ground with the nuns inside.

Pharaoh's overreaction had similar consequences centuries before. When faced with the threat of Plague #8, locusts, he repeated his first seven reactions to that bad news heralded by Moses and Aaron. After the duo left, the king's servants said to him (Exodus 10:7 MSG), "How long are you going to let this man harass us? Let these people go and worship their God. Can't you see that Egypt is on its last legs?" He refused to listen remaining hard-headed and hard-hearted through those creepy locusts, creepier darkness, and the final blow - death of his son. To save face he managed to lose everything of value in his country including his entire army.

Perhaps you can discover others in history who have made similar blunders. They could all join Pharaoh and Saint Ebba in the Overreaction Hall of Fame.