Leave the rest to God
The fight against the coronavirus is everybody's fight. We may differ in our methods and in our means but the objective is the same: Defeat this unseen enemy at the soonest possible time. Our contributions may vary, our requirements may be measured differently, but each one of us has got to have something to give.
At the end of the day, however, we can only do so much. And as much as we may want to push even more or pull a little bit harder, our human limitations will eventually have to put a stop to our efforts. In the end everybody will have to accept the fact that it is only God who can finish the job. The sooner we realize this, the easier it is to let go and let God take over.
At this point, please allow me to pause and applaud all the frontliners who are risking their lives, the doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers who give so much of themselves for others. I am a father to one of them, a nurse who must work 12 to 14 hours a day under these unforgiving circumstances, and it is no exaggeration to say I die a thousand deaths each day that she is on duty.
Let me applaud as well all government officials and workers who lead us through this dark hour and who give so much of their time to keep things running and in order even as our lives are being turned upside down, both by the reality we see, and the great fear of that which we cannot. Without these people we would all become sitting ducks for this savage virus.
That said, let me go back to my original premise that we can only do or give so much of ourselves. Let no one be so presumptive as to think we can carry this fight to the end by ourselves. God will have to eventually intervene and carry the fight, if he has not done so already, in ways that we may not realize or understand quickly enough.
For example, I agree with human rights lawyers who say that while severe restrictions are warranted and necessary in times of great crises and national emergencies, one cannot go overboard in depriving people of certain basic and inherent rights. The 24-hour curfew or home restriction, for one, is unconstitutional and excessive.
A home-lockdown becomes even more oppressive if government cannot provide social safety nets for those it virtually imprisons in their homes. It is not enough to say it is for their own protection because that is only an assumption. There is no real protection against the unseen and unknown. What government can do is merely to exercise prudence and guidance. It cannot force anyone to an uncertain outcome.
Curfews are okay but whole-day confinements are not only illegal and unconstitutional, notwithstanding the vast powers vested in officials during emergencies to order them, but they also assume that which only God can dispense. Bisag unsaon pa nato ug tuwad-tuwad og kinurfew, when the Voice calls out Smithy, Smithy, no fool, will have to drop to his knees and say, “yes Lord, what do you want of me?”
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