Dr John Mohan Razu
“In His Time”, “At His Pace”
We Don’t Set the Pace,
It’s God’s Plan.
God’s Path
And God’s Timings.
Coronavirus, otherwise called as COVID-19, is currently the key word, the vocabulary and widely used term, right across the world. Media, both the print and TV channels have been flooded with all sorts of news, articles, reports, data and analysis about it. From diverse facets and perspectives Coronavirus has been approached, debated and deliberated. Everyone including the most powerful men and women, political leaders of all shades and those who control finance and economy are caught in such ways that they don’t have the slightest clue to handle this deadly pandemic. Periodically the leaders of all the nations appear before the television and radio addressing and urging their respective citizens not to get panicked by promising something positive and hopeful. Whether one likes or not the time is such that they’ve got to say something soothing and hope-enlivening.
Thus far no one knows how it originated; how long it would last; how to eradicate and what would be the implications? Scientists are engaged in serious research to find out drugs, to combat and to handle the emergent deadly epidemic. Initially a few countries two months ago had to face the severity of the pandemic; as the months passed by other countries followed suit and now the entire world is immersed with COVID-19. The whole world is in shock and under the grip of fear. Many train and flight services have been stopped; malls, religious worship places, pubs, entertainments joints, tourism, foreign jaunts and many others have come to grinding halts. Everyone is asked to follow the instructions issued by the respective governments. It is now mandatory to stay indoors and citizens are advised not to travel.
Main lanes and by lanes look deserted; aircrafts (internal & international), trains, buses and all kinds of transport facility wear deserted look. In less than three months COVID-19 ravaged the global economy in such ways and to revive would take some years. To protect life many have started to wear face masks which gives totally a different look as if we are living in another planet. Many countries have stopped issuing visa and advised its citizens not to leave their countries and asked their country men and women to return their countries of origin. Educational institutions are asked to close down;, corporate, central and State government offices have been asked to work from home; community gatherings and festivities are banned; Section 144 is being invoked and many such things.
Humanity in history has faced epidemics, wars, conflicts and other human made destructions in the past and moved on in life. But, the current Coronavirus has totally paralyzed the world and thus kept the whole world in fear. World Health Organization (WHO) has been asking everyone to flatten the curve because the curve is on the rise and by all means should be flattened. Leaders, medical personnel and other professionals are desperate to contain the virus, but as the days go by it is going viral. With all the advancements in science and technology particularly in medical sciences the 21st Century is caught in such ways that we hardly have any answer to the growing menace of COVID-19. The current epidemic has totally shut and shattered the big talks, great discoveries and unlimited human potentials which we usually boast and content with.
People of diverse faith persuasions keep invoking God because the situation we are in warrants. People pray to God for His intervention at this time of peril and calamity. It is to be borne in mind that God is not playing dice and He shall never intervene to our calls. It is absurd to constrict God to our time and space. God is beyond and is infinite. His infiniteness is beyond time and space and so expecting God’s interventions in such scenarios leads to reductionism. Prayers and actions are needed, but our proximity with God should become closer because we keep distancing from God as we are totally engrossed with the demands of the worldly things. The material world lures and pushes us towards that. In the process, we have mammonized the divine and divinized the mammon.
We as mortals have no control over God’s space and time and so in His time and space God shall answer to our prayers. God is in total and absolute control over us. This is His world and whatever is in the world belongs to Him. It is this faith affirmation that keeps us to move on in this world. We may talk about our time and space and should never impose our time and space to God’s time and space. When we affirm that He is our Creator and Sustainer—whatever we face and are happening around us and in this world have to come to an end not in our time and space, but in God’s time and space. It’s absurd to call God and expect God to intervene whenever we are struck with grief and calamity. God is not playing dice, but watching over His created order, because He is All-Knowing and All-Encompassing.
Having created us in His image, God has given the complete dominion to us—not to dominate, but to be the stewards of God’s created order. We went in our own ways and destroyed the nature and trampled upon His commands and mandates because of our selfishness, greed and avarice. We did abuse the freedom and responsibility given to us. We walked in our own ways and failed to take note of God’s commands. We at this juncture do not know the very origin of COVID-19. We keep speculating many theories but nothing seem to moving in the right direction. Nothing can be done except waiting patiently, praying to God and engaging in services helping our neighbors and community. When we acknowledge God who is Supreme, then, who are we to measure God’s time and space—Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent?
