Getting Back to Normal

I hear the word normal used a lot these days.  Not only do I hear it, I say it and think it. "When things get back to normal," is a phrase I use when I think of something I would like to do in the future but can't do right now in this time of shelter-in-place and social distancing.  Other times I wonder aloud in frustration, "Will things ever get back to normal?"

In any time of change and distress we often wish for things to return to the way they were. A hundred years ago, a Senator from Ohio by the name of Warren G. Harding ran for President of our country.  The country was emerging from the first World War, a war that was called at the time the "war to end all wars."  After enduring the loss of life during the war and the changes the war brought to our society, including a deadly pandemic, the country was ready for more tranquil days. 

So it was that the good Senator ran for President asking for a "return to normalcy."  He won.  The consensus of most historians is that Warren Harding was one of the worst Presidents in our history. What the historical record also shows is that because of the changes brought about by World War I the country could never go back to being the same again.

Whenever a traumatic event takes place in a society, such an event is bound to have a lasting effect on that society.   Anyone who has experienced airport security before 9-11 and after 9-11 knows that this is the case.  Traumatic events change our personal lives and we can certainly expect changes in our society and culture as well.

Thus, while we strive for normal times in our society we must come to terms with the fact that what is normal after the COVID-19 crisis will not be the same as what was considered normal before the crisis.  This crisis can permanently change things in our society.  

It is important to remember that change is amoral, it is neither good nor bad.  The morality of change is dependent upon what is changed, how it is changed and what the results of that change happen to be.

As we contemplate how our world may look after this crisis we must understand that normal is not going to look as normal looked before the crisis.  Things will not remain the same.

Education will be different.  What have our educational leaders and institutions learned from this crisis and how will instruction change as a result of  those lessons?

Our health care will be different.  One possible change that I am observing is that how we receive our medical care may be handled differently in the future.  As the doctor's house call became a thing of the past, might not our doctor visits look differently in the future as we have relied more on tel-medicine and other distancing practices?   What impact, if any, will the discoveries in the research for COVID-19 vaccines and cures have on other infectious diseases?   

Our economy will also be different.  Will the travel industry change because many businesses are now handling their affairs in ways other than in person meetings?  How might the food service industry change?  Will our industrial priorities change?  What will this do to the long-term health of our financial markets? How many persons and businesses suffer because of the lack of economic activity?  What will be the long term effects will this crisis have on the world economy?

How will this crisis alter our governmental and political institutions?  Can this crisis produce what President George H.W. Bush once envisioned, an America that is a "Kinder, gentler nation?"  Will this crisis lead to a more civil public discourse?

Then there is the question that I wonder about the most, both professionally and also on a personal spiritual level. What does this crisis mean for the church?  While God doesn't change, nor the gospel change, how we minister will change. After all it has changed a great deal in recent years.  What will we learn as a church from this crisis that will enable the church to have a more  viable  mission and ministry in the years to come?

These are just a few of the questions that are left to be answered.   In the written Chinese language the character for crisis is a combination of the character for danger and opportunity.  That is the world in which we find ourselves.  Whether or not our society will seize the opportunities this crisis gives us a question that is left to be answered. 

What is obvious is that our world will be different.  Normal will be something new.