Broken Hearted

“The Lord is near to the broken-hearted; and those who are crushed in spirit He saves.” Psalm 34:19

There are just too many heart breaking events these past days. From around the world come stories that may have seemed unbelievable to us just a couple of months ago, but we are just barely into a new year, and it seems as if 2020 has just gone on and on. The march of this epidemic has been inexorable in almost all parts of the world. 

Sometimes we are tempted to dismiss all the awful news as fake, but we can’t. In Italy, there are 80,589 Coronavirus cases, and 8,215 deaths as of today. Here in the Philippines there are 707 cases with 45 dead. Those aren’t statistics, those are people. People fighting for their lives, young and old, rich and poor, men, women with families, jobs, people who need them. The worst thing about this sickness is the loneliness. You have to fight it without your friends and family beside you, and when you die, you die alone. The toll is so hard on the healthworkers who usually want to get to know their patients. Because this disease is so contagious, and because they need to take care of so many, they cannot spend the usual time caring for the patient. 

Hospitals are overwhelmed and understaffed. There are not enough equipment to keep their frontliners safe. How many good doctors have died in the battlefield? Too many and many more are still fighting for their lives. Lord, this is just too much to deal with. I do not even want to take a peek into the future! 

What do we need to do? We need to stop reading, and watching the news all the time. There is just so much we can take. We need to breathe deep and thank God for what we have right now, where we are. Jesus chose to give thanks on the night He was betrayed. We need to do that too, as a defense against the dark forces trying to engulf us. 

We have to pray to the God who is in control, and who loves us as if we were His only child. We need to stand on the uncompromised Word of God and let it surround us, back, front, both sides and on top. No amount of heartbreaking stories on Viber, Facebook or in the news can compete with the joy, peace and vibrancy of the real Good News. We need to anchor ourselves on that or we will flounder helplessly in the waves of fear and uncertainty.