A paralyzing outcome of the pandemic and fear of the “new normal” …

A year of life in a pandemic, and now the fears of what to do with a “new normal,” have had many effects that have deeply impacted lives, marriages, families, churches, and church leaders.

One that is particularly paralyzing is an increasing aversion to risk.

“What if the coronavirus spikes and we have to work from home again?”

“What if we have to close our business again?”

“What if we have to close the church again?”

“What if masks and social-distancing become ‘mandatory’ again?”

What if …

What if …

What if …

Some people and pastors play over and over in their minds the various scenarios of what-ifs so much that it paralyzes them in taking any risks of stepping into the “new normal” we’re now faced with.

The behavior of some reminds me of a story told long ago in Youth’s Companion about a farmer:

A motorist once stopped for water at a dilapidated house in the South where a barefooted man, leaning against a rickety fence, was gazing meditatively across a field that had grown up to weeds.

“How is your cotton this year?” asked the motorist.

“Well, sir,” replied the man, “I ain’t got no cotton. I didn’t plant none ’cause I was afraid the boll weevil might be bad.”

“How is your corn?”

“Well, I didn’t plant no corn neither, for I didn’t know if we’d git rain,” he replied.

The motorist hesitated, “How are your sweet potatoes?” he asked at last.

“Well, now, Stranger,” the man replied, “you see, it’s just this way: I didn’t plant no sweet pertaters ’cause I was afraid the bugs might take them. No, sir, I didn’t plant nothin’, I just played safe.”

Irrational fears can foster such an aversion to risk (real or imagined — in today’s times, often imagined) that it can generate a host of excuses for doing nothing …

“No, sir, I didn’t do nothin’, I just played it safe.”

Scripture also references a farmer about this irrational aversion to risk:

“Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another — or maybe both,” Ecclesiastes 11:4-6.

Are you entertaining fears and fostering an aversion to moving forward in the “new normal”? What are you waiting on?

Scotty