Wow. I’ve written on coronavirus since last Saturday when we observed, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” I hope the blogs have been encouraging during this difficult time.

Here’s an important thought. It’s not original; our pastor challenged us back in 2001 on Friday after Tuesday’s 9/11 attack. Here’s what he said:

Turn off the TV!

Back in 2001, everyone was watching news coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon around the clock. Three days later, at a Friday gathering at our church, our pastor gently pointed out that if something was important we’d find out about it. In the meantime, filling our minds with nothing but negative news was not healthy.

The same is true today with the coronavirus. June and I hardly ever watch television news, and we don’t usually start our day with the newspaper. But we found ourselves poring through two newspapers first thing in the morning and watching the evening news, where upwards of 2/3 of the minutes were devoted to coronavirus. Crazy. So we’ve put all that on hold. We’re continuing to stay informed, but that doesn’t require nearly the time we were giving it.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4.8, NIV)