Coronavirus (COVID-19) ~ Disinfecting Our Hearts
I recently flew home from a business trip. The day I’d embarked, a mere four days previously, everything had seemed normal. Yet on this, the day of my return, a sense of nervous urgency electrified the air. Passengers feverishly wiped down their seats, armrests, and tray tables. Some wore face masks. All wore knitted brows and anxious glances. I knew full well the reason for this behavior change. The day I left there were 4 people infected in my home state. The day I returned there were 40. COVID-19 is steadily marching on.
I remarked how some of these individuals went to great lengths to make their environment clean, while at the same time spouting foul language and unkind gestures. Surely our surfaces have never been cleaner…yet, within, there is fear, greed, and anger. What if we cleaned our hearts with the same fervor that we cleaned our hands? What if, while we scrubbed our hands and sang ‘happy birthday’ twice, we also prayed and asked God to wash away the dirt from our souls? Interestingly, some of the religious leaders got very upset with Jesus because His disciples did not wash their hands according to custom (this was well before the “happy birthday” song was written, so they must have been singing something else twice!) Jesus responds with some fascinating words. He said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”[1]
Joni Eareckson Tada wrote, “We rant and rave against God for the evil we have to endure in the world, but hardly blink at the evil that’s in our own hearts.”[2] And, according to Jesus, the cleanliness of our hearts is infinitely more important than the cleanliness of our countertops.
We have received several helpful instructions by our government lately regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, our country has now implemented ‘social distancing’ as a temporary custom we must all adopt to slow the spread of this virus. It is recommended that we all stay six feet away from each other. I find this incredibly difficult; it is so normal to hug or shake hands when meeting someone! But what I find even more difficult is distancing myself from places where I could pick up another type of virus, the ‘virus of the inner atmosphere’, the illness of my own heart. It is very contagious, and very prevalent. It is sin.
Have you ever watched a frightening movie and noticed yourself easily scared just afterwards? Or have you listened to a violent song and found yourself suddenly angry? When the Taliban were training young boys for war, they subjected them to endless violent images to make them more violent. Young girls trapped in sexual slavery are forced to watch hours of hardcore porn to sexualize them before they are shipped off to their destinations. The ideas and images we repeatedly ingest have a profound affect on our psyche.
The Bible says, “stay away from every kind of evil.” It also says, “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.”[3] I find it interesting that Paul instructs Timothy here to keep an eye on what he is exposing himself to. Certain people and activities might encourage us to sin, and other people and activities are ‘pure-hearted’ ones. The virus of sin does not dwell easily in these things!
Times of crisis are often times of reflection. Perhaps you have recently looked inside your own heart. Perhaps, like me, you did not like what you saw there. Friends, we can be changed. God never intended us to have a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline.[4] No wonder the psalmist writes, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”[5] When our hearts are not clean, we do not feel steady. We are tossed this way and that by emotions. Yet we have this assurance, “The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.”[6]
I want to fit this description! Oh, to keep moving forward, and to become stronger and stronger! How do we do go about disinfecting our hearts from the virus of sin so that we can fulfill our destiny as conquerors in love instead of cowards in fear? As it pertains to avoiding COVID-19 we know we should disinfect surfaces often, avoid touching our faces, and cover up when we cough and sneeze. But what are our instructions pertaining to the virus of the inner atmosphere? Where better to look than the book of James, who writes so eloquently of the human heart.
3 Steps to Disinfect the Heart (from James):
1. Draw Near to God
James instructs us: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”[7] Jesus Himself said that those ‘pure in heart’ would be blessed because they would see God.[8] What does this look like practically? I am reminded of the twelve years I spent listening to a Christian apologist. I learned so much from his radio program, and his speeches helped to change and develop my thinking in many areas. Yet it wasn’t until I began working for this man that I truly began learning from him. I had spent more than a decade learning information from him, but things changed when I met his family, celebrated holidays with him, and saw how he lived his life first hand. Now I was learning so much more by watching this man, by observing how he lived so selflessly and cared for others. In the same way, we can read our Bibles forwards and backwards until we are blue in the face. It is not bad to read the Scriptures, but there is more to be had. We have the chance to meet the Author! In fact, we have the chance to spend quality time with Him every day. This looks different for different people, but for me it looks like long walks in nature or spending time in prayer in my room. I picture God as the Sun, the source of life, and I am a little potted houseplant. When I draw near to Him, I am nearer to that clean and cleansing source. Not only does it burn off the ‘bugs’ clinging on to me (past regrets, sinful affinities, etc.), the sun also makes me thrive and grow.
2. Confession of Sins
James also tells us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”[9] Sin is incredibly harmful to us, which is why we need forgiveness (which often has the connotation of healing in the Bible) from sins. This is difficult for many reasons. First, sin is quite controlling, though it be subtle. This also connects back to step 1, because sin actively separates us from God in a sort of terrible “the more I sin the further away from God I am, so the more I’ll sin” vicious circle.[10] Jesus said that sins have the power to enslave us.[11] That is pretty strong language! Sin is described as a sneaky thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. People living in sin, therefore, are only living a half-life. Jesus came to cast out sin so that we can live fully, as we were meant to.[12] We must cast sin off, no matter how tightly coiled around us it may be. Confessing sins to one another is instrumental here. If I see a leech stuck on my skin and sucking the life out of me, I’ll likely go to a friend for help in removing it. When it comes to sin, there is sometimes a temptation to be ashamed here. (On that note, be careful who you confess your sins to, because there are certainly people out there who will just heap more judgment on you, and that’s not helpful at all! The connotation here is that you are getting help from a ‘righteous person’; arguably, not a perfect friend, but a friend who is spiritually mature enough to help.) Find someone you trust, show them the leech (sin), pry it off (repentance) and pray together (healing).
3. Master the Mind
James instructs us to be resolute in our thinking, and to not allow doubts to plague our minds. He urges us to ask God for wisdom whenever we lack it, but to “ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”[13] Doubts make us ‘double-minded’, and this can weaken not only our psyche but also our faith. Emotions, memories and ideas are good things, but they are not meant to be our masters. We are meant to be the master of our own mind. This is incredibly difficult; sometimes my own thoughts run away with me like a wild horse! Paul encourages us to control our thoughts by submitting them to Christ,[14] to whom we ourselves are submitted. This does not mean that we stop thinking, only that we are learning to think well. It’s no surprise that this instruction to choose wisdom and faith over doubting appears in a passage about steadfastness. And it’s with those words that I’d like to conclude this blog entry:
“Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Let us press on, as those who have been given life to the fullest by Christ, not as those who crumble in a spirit of fear, but as those who rise up in the power of love. Let us draw near to God, savoring His presence as the source of Life. Let us not hide our sins to fester, but expose them to the Light to be healed. And let us be the masters of our own minds, even as Christ is the master of our hearts. Amen!
[1] Mark 7v20-23
[2] Eareckson, J. (2003). The God I love: A lifetime of walking with Jesus. Grand Rapids., Mich: Zondervan.
[3] 1 Thessalonians 5v22; 2 Timothy 2v22
[4] 2 Timothy 1v7
[5] Psalm 51v10
[6] Job 17v9
[7] James 4 v8
[8] Matthew 5v8
[9] James 5v16
[10] Isaiah 59v2
[11] John 8v34
[12] John 10v10
[13] James 1v6
[14] 2 Corinthians 10v5
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