Outreach During COVID-19

These are special times, rife with unique possibilities for outreach!  In my mind, the greatest opportunities have to do with exemplary character, which relates to the golden rule, or loving our neighbors as ourselves.

For starters, two knee-jerk reactions—fearful hoarding and fearfully refusing to help someone in need—are immediately ruled out.  “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1).  God will provide and protect!

Then there’s loving the physically weak, the elderly and the immunosuppressed; the economically vulnerable, too, for whom missing work would be devastating.  If you’re younger and healthy you’ve probably comforted yourself with the reminder that you would have a high likelihood of recovering, should you contract Covid-19.  But I have to ask: has this ever made you a smidgen careless with respect to contracting (and perhaps unwittingly transmitting) the disease?  Think: golden rule. Considering the welfare of those less strong than myself will especially apply down the road, when we’re all tired of the isolation and preventive precautions.

Also: how might we reach out to those who are having to completely shut themselves in? Do you know of anyone who could use some checking up on? Might they need something that you could leave on their porch? Perhaps they’re nearly out of some essential supply.  Perhaps they just need someone to talk to, face-to-face—someone willing to stand 6-8 feet away from their front door and chat for a bit.

While we all need to be thinking about how we can mitigate the spread of the virus, we may also face competing forces.  If the public school system begins to need volunteers to help prepare and distribute meals to students who depend on them, or if retirement facilities, medical clinics and hospitals begin to need outside help, will we step in and help? It may be a difficult choice, but God calls us to do all that we can to preserve the lives of those around us!  (And few things would witness more powerfully to our trust in God.)

Yet another application of the golden rule is living with love and understanding toward those who are more fearful than me, or not fearful enough, etc. All of us are making our own decisions and acting in ways that our neighbors, co-workers and fellow members of CPC might not. Charity, grace and refraining from judgmental attitudes are the order of the day, and will help us shine Christ’s light.

Lastly, here’s a good reminder: If we don’t pray, our labors for Christ’s kingdom and glory may come to nothing.  This pandemic highlights more than ever that prayer isn’t just a preparation and support of our visible labors of love.  It is itself a labor of love—though mostly invisible.  How better to minister to the lost than to plead with the Holy Spirit to use the reality of death to bring many into saving grace. The Holy Spirit’s business is, among other things, to convict the world of sin and of the judgment to come (John 16:8).  Let’s pray fervently that He do so in specific hearts, lifting the lost before Him by name!  I do not know of a better application of the golden rule.