DAY 135: “We’re all suffering from coronavirus caution fatigue”

DAY 135

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Monday 27 July 2020

“We’re all suffering from coronavirus caution fatigue”

“In April, the COVID-19 pandemic felt like all anyone could talk about. It was the top story on the news every night. By and large, everybody who could was staying home. The pandemic felt urgent, immediate, terrifying….case counts are rising in half of U.S. states…So why are we going back to ‘normal life’, even when the virus is still actively spreading? Jacqueline Gollan, an associate professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has coined a name for this phenomenon based on her 15 years of  research into depression, anxiety and decision-making: ‘caution fatigue.’ …Now, months in, the prolonged mix of stress, anxiety,  isolation and disrupted routines has left many feeling drained. As motivation dips, people are growing lax about social-distancing and putting themselves and others in harm’s way.” - From a current news magazine article by the same name

Whether from caution fatigue or carelessness or denial of it all, growing numbers of individuals have thrown caution to the wind and crowded into  bars, dance floors, parties and churches, and clusters of COVID-29 infections have emerged from such gatherings shortly thereafter. The insidious nature of this unseen foe is that it does not discriminate between parties and prayer meetings, spreading with invisible silence from person to person.    

Not only in our fight against a virus but in our struggle in the unseen realm with an unseen enemy, we are called to be ever vigilant. Peter calls us to resist caution fatigue in his first letter to the scattered church in1 Peter 5:8 when he says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” KJV. The whole familiar set of armor given in Ephesians 6 is a reminder that we are engaged in spiritual warfare of some kind at all times, and the weapons provided are given to ensure we don’t become weary, fatigued.

Reflective question: Will you ask the Holy Spirit to show you where, because of caution fatigue, you are letting down your guard, and how you can take steps to correct your weak places?

Reflective Scripture: Ephesians 6:13 – “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

Reflective hymn:

“Soldiers of Christ, Arise” – Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Leave no unguarded place, no weakness of the soul;

Take every virtue, every grace, and fortify the whole.

That having all things done and all your conflicts past,

Ye may o’ercome thro’ Christ alone and stand complete at last.