Every now and then the period of time in which we live seems to launch into a higher gear than we imagined possible just before the shift happened, bringing with it high stakes and a high octane vibe the likes of which usually only come along once in a lifetime, if that often. Every now and then history – God’s dramatic masterpiece written through His creations of time and space – shifts into a transitional chapter in which long-running plots and subplots come together as they were always intended to, however much we may miss, ignore, or try to wish away that reality. We seem to be living in one of those times right now.

As such, I thought it might be useful and, dare I say it, fun, to record some thoughts as to how my wife and I are viewing things here on April 4, 2020. More specifically, while things from the recent past are still fresh in mind and as the Chinese Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 unfolds, I thought it might be cool to share some detail as to how we’ve processed the CCV Pandemic up to this point.

The first thing we need to fully appreciate while considering the many significant and challenging aspects of the big picture situation unfolding at this time, is that God is in control, and perfectly so. He has purposefully ordained every detail, every plot, and every subplot in this stretch of His story, and He is using all of these things perfectly to ultimately bring glory to Himself and benefits to His people (Romans 8:28-31). Generally speaking, this truth should make His people happy, at peace, and confident, even in the most tumultuous of times. While healthy weeping and mourning have their proper place, Christians should not only claim that God is in control, but they should model the sort of stable, calm, mature adult approach to reality that actually conveys that confidence in practice.

Another key foundational understanding has to do with the inevitable, unstoppable, supernaturally turbocharged reality of the Gospel-fueled Great Commission, by which God is using His people as His body filled with His Spirit and guided by His Word so that He might conquer every one of His enemies and advance His rule over every aspect of life in every corner of His earth, all by His grace, all for His glory, and (see if you can catch the theme here) all to the benefit of His people (see: Matthew 28:18-20 and Colossians 1:15-20). This means that King Jesus is, right here and now in the middle of and through this pandemic, perfectly advancing His Kingdom through His people.

Again, if we actually believe this (which is not the same thing as merely proclaiming it), we will find not only great peace within, but we will exude that peace in our daily lives. We will also find great inspiration to pursue the many amazing opportunities that are now springing up in numbers and areas of life that most of us had not imagined very likely, if possible at all, just a few months ago. (I touched on this idea last month in 10 Major Positives of the Chinese Coronavirus Pandemic.)

This is the broader context in which my kids will hopefully understand all things pandemic-related. While I may get into more detail in future postes regarding how I try to model love, peace, and confidence in the Lord to my wife and children, what I want to share here is some of the basic timeline/bullet-point info that will help my children (and any interested readers here) to better understand where my house is on the CCV issue and how we got here.

I offer none of this as anything even remotely resembling a textbook lesson or example of how everyone (or anyone) else ought to approach these things. Quite the contrary. I’m primarily wanting to share here for the sake of creating a record and sharing details that people, my kids in particular, might be wondering about as they look back on this point in history.

More particularly, I’m offering this as a means by which my children might learn about my understanding of things “in the moment” of April 4, 2020, for however much or little that may be worth. The general idea is to provide enough of a detailed record so that in the future I (or my kids) can look back and assess how close or far off the mark I may have been at this point in time. Hopefully, in hindsight from a far better place on down the road, this sort of record will help shed light on the weaknesses and errors as well as any strengths and insights that I may have had at this particular point in time. This sort of record might then serve as an aide to those looking back on this period of time, helping them to learn how to better think, analyze, critique, and plan for the next wave of challenges that God places before us.

Along those lines, I’d like to share three types of info:

  1. A timeline of key events and realizations that have shaped my approach to CCV and CCV-related things up to April 4 of 2020.
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  2. A summary of some other key points as I’ve observed them in the months since CCV emerged onto the world stage. Again, I’m just gonna share what I see (or think I see) and count on the reader to test those claims by whatever light they have to shed (ideally beginning with Scripture as the baseline standard for all things).
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  3. A few thoughts about the near-term future as I see it in light of trends and trajectories noted in points 1 and 2. (Which I will post in a separate “Part II” follow-up next week.)

With those three goals noted, let’s dive into the timeline:

With that timeline set, here are a handful of general themes that have struck me over the course of the last two months or so…

The Emergence of Great Alternative Information Sources

For all of the laughably bad information proliferated by the WHO, CDC, Chinese Communist Party, and Big Government/Big Media in general, some amazing alternative information sources have emerged in a big way (in no small part due to the relative incompetence of the aforementioned System-approved sources and “experts”). While I could (and may in the future) share a long list of resources I’ve been very happy and thankful to have connected with in recent months, there are two that stand out.

The first is Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity.

While I’d been casually following Peak Prosperity for a while, it was Chris’ cool, collected, super-detailed and well researched presentation on CCV that hooked me in January. Rather than explain to you just how cool, how spot on, and how helpful Chris has been to me (and many others) in this era of bad info, suppressed info, and politically spun info, I think it’d be far better for me to share with you a video update on CCV that he posted January 24.

It’s less than 10 minutes long (9:47 to be precise). If at all possible, you really need to pause here and watch this. If you can’t do that now, please come back to it later. Either way, here’s the embedded video player:

The other information/education star that has become a top tier, near-daily source of data for Holly and me is Mike Maloney of GoldSilver.com. His amazing “Hidden Secrets of Money” series had, in its seventh episode, predicted exactly what we’re seeing now. Check it out:

If you haven’t watched that series, you need to. If you are home educating your children, you need to incorporate it into your studies on God’s creation of economics. It’s that good.

More recently, Mike has been chronicling the impact of CCV (on a near-daily basis, like Chris from Peak Prosperity). His coverage has been remarkably approachable and information drenched at the same time (which is no easy thing to accomplish), all while maintaining a light, happy spirit even though he’s often covering the most serious and heavy of things. He really does an amazing job.

The Widespread Abandonment of Common-Sense

While there have been many examples of the trampling and abandonment of even the most elementary levels of common-sense, nothing quite makes the point as clearly as the issue of face masks/coverings in the CCV era.

While we were initially told by System-certified “experts” and media tools that such covering weren’t helpful with things like CCV and that we are so stupid and incompetent that we shouldn’t even trust ourselves to be able to use a face mask without hurting ourselves, as of this week, the same “experts”, “leaders” and tools are now saying that we should use face coverings in the CCV era.

The saddest and most revealing part of this dark comedic episode has been the way that masses of System-programmed citizens/cattle have mindlessly absorbed, embraced, and regurgitated such idiotic policies as their anointed “experts” relay them on.

Chris Martenson has covered this subject very well, including his recent post chronicling the latest about-face taken by the “experts”:

The fact that we’ve been (and are still) resisting one of the key elements deployed by  South Korea and many others in successful mitigation of CCV is simultaneously bizarre and tragic.

The fact that most Americans are still personally committed to dismissing the necessity of face coverings in containing CCV seems to me a telltale sign that we’ve devolved into a suicidally selfish and prideful culture. Hopefully, by God’s grace, that will soon change. Hopefully we’ll soon repent and embrace reality where face coverings are concerned.

The Importance of Repenting of Having Ever Embraced a Wrong Idea

I remember hearing Paul Washer explaining the importance of repenting of having ever believed in a wrong idea or concept once we are made aware that the concept in question is, in fact, wrong. That idea struck me immediately as good and important to pursue.

That concept seems to intersect in a meaningful way with many of the items touched on here. If we don’t acknowledge and repent of our use of bad approaches to information and bad arguments in defense of bad positions out of devotion to (or idolatry of) our favorite pet narrative or cause, then we are not only doomed to remain captive and corrupted by those bad things, but we are modeling a very damaging form of stubbornness to our children and others watching. If we allow our emotions to trump reality or dictate what we acknowledge as reality, we are not helping anyone, ourselves included.

I need as much reminding on this as anyone. We are all prone to idolize our favored things. We are all prone to slant things in the direction that we want the to go, to see the world as we wish it was, and to dismiss all counter opinions as inherently flawed when they dare to confront or contradict our pet perspectives. This is as true for me as it is for anyone and while I believe that it is important for adults to push hard and tackle things seriously in ways that will inherently offend the delicate, emotion-driven sensibilities of many (particularly in this age of the Snowflake), I hope and pray that I always approach these things with a Spirit of both personal humility and a boldness rooted in Christ rather than myself. (For more on this idea, you might want to check out Never forget that apart from God’s grace you and I are complete morons.)

So there you have it. I apologize for the long, rambley and relatively unpolished nature of this post, but I wanted to get these things on the record in a way that will help my kids to understand how I was viewing the world during this particularly interesting period defined in large part, at least for the moment, by CCV.

I want my kids to know more later, after this chapter passes, since we don’t dwell on these points with them as we go about our daily business of (mostly) happy, (usually) productive life cleaning, building, adventuring, and playing together.

I hope that those of you who’ve managed to read through this might find some encouragement in some of the things noted here. I know that I’ve been enjoying this time of renewed home and family focus with my beautiful bride, and I hope that the Lord will guide each and every one of His people in a similarly wonderful direction.

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