I don’t want to mention its name, yet it is running amok in the minds of people. It’s a virus. It is reasonable to fear something new that causes sickness, mild or otherwise. It still amazes me just how much people are panicking over it. No… I haven’t seen anyone freak out in person, but I have seen some of the side-effects of their actions.

You have the stock market un-stocking. You have news going on and on about this beyond microscopic “menace”. You have governments stampeding forward to get emergency funding. Meanwhile, there are yet trillions of other little problems people are facing everyday.

I’m not going to say that their fears have no justification, but it gives me pause. I have to wonder. Why is it that more is done with selling fear than selling peace, so to speak? Especially when the nature of selling this fear takes on the nature of the contagion?

You could even go so far to say that some who are selling the fear are also selling something else… a relief from the very fear they sell. Mind you, I’m not saying some sort of conspiracy is going on. I have lived long enough though to recognize that some people take advantage of other people’s panic in surprising ways.

It is rare that someone sells a complete cure for a fear, or a problem. Even fixes wear out over time. That’s just apart of life. I have to ask… who “sells” peace?

Peace isn’t sexy. It’s quiet. Peace isn’t going to give you five minutes of fame for sounding like an expert just because the media told you something. Peace isn’t going to give you a short lasting boost of self-importance just because you were confident enough to talk to someone about a commonly held fear. How lasting is benefit of acting like a damn fool when everyone else is going crazy? Well… sooner or later all that matters is the next football game, and if the power goes out… APOCALYPSE!!! DUN DUN DUN. Oh wait… my latte is cold *rolls eyes*.

Humanity’s ignorance to its own fear knows almost no bounds. It’s rare that someone reflects on the nature of things. Knowing someone who tries to find a LASTING silver lining in the midst, but not in, the chaos is like trying to find a T-Rex skeleton under the foundation of a house. For the few who do go on this type of search though, to them even a piece of something that works to calm the heart is priceless. It certainly is priceless to me.

It is important to have compassion on people, silly or not. I know Jesus has a gut that moves madly in love, and compassion for the world. As He cares for us, it is also important to care for one another.

I think it is terrible when all of the short term sense of community evaporates (built upon fear itself), and all the care goes away once the “fear” has passed… with just how many people return to being the same. I would imagine that Christ is grieved as well.

Oh! So when there was nothing to lose you were kind? When there was nothing to risk, because of the actualized risk all around, you “risked” it all? What does that say about you?

I’ve had to learn to put my compassion on a leash. Give too much of it out I am made ill. Give too little of it out I feel the same. Compassion, and care must be tempered with wisdom so that the benefits of it are mutual, rather than one sided.

Like many, I want peace. I know though that peace isn’t the same thing as happiness because many things are fun to do, but not all of them leave you feeling a sense of rest and contentment thereafter. Peace remains even when the rush ends.

I’ll keep this short. I just want to say that it is better to veer towards the things that remain meaningful even after the winds of panic blow past. It is better to be planted in a soil that goes deep than to be rolling about as a tumbleweed with all that big air going past you.

Look for your piece of peace. Look in the Prince of Peace.

For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Jeremiah 17:8, WEB

Blessings. =)