Social Contact In the Age of COVID-19

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 English Standard Version (ESV)

11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

As we are living in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are indeed living in uncertain times. To help prevent the spread of this virus, we are asked to do things that we are not accustomed to in our modern world, particularly in the United States where we do experience a lot of freedom. We are asked to practice things like social distancing, self-isolation, and self-quarantine if we feel we have any symptom of COVID-19. There is a plethora of information available to us via the internet. One of the difficulties we face, however, is the fact that we are social beings. We naturally desire to be around other people. The scripture verse shared at the beginning suggests that in order to build one another up, we obviously need to be in contact with them. The good news is that social distancing and self-isolation need not be synonymous with “social isolation”. We have a plethora of means to communicate with each other in todays advanced technological age. We can communicate with smart phones, cell phones, computers and landline phones to name a few. We can communicate with one another, share our burdens with each other, and as Christians, we can pray for each other. I would like to challenge everyone to communicate with someone via one of these means. For a person feeling isolated, that phone call might fulfill scripture by encouraging and building them up, just like the bible verse for today suggests.

Prayer: “Dear Lord: Despite the fear and uncertainty we are feeling in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s remember our brothers and sisters in Christ and contact them virtually through technology so that we can encourage and build them up the way you would want us to. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”