A Thank You Letter

By Kristen Bourgeois

Fear and anxiety are contagious. And, I was swept up in it when the news broke that the coronavirus had made its way to Louisiana. I let myself sink into that fear of the unknown and the anxiety of keeping loved ones safe while trying to balance a home life under the new state mandated stay at home order.

Fear makes people do weird things, such as hoard toilet paper. But what really was happening was fear was making people selfish. That’s one of the things fear does.

But you know what else is contagious? Encouragement. As the news only had more bad news to report on, I was encouraged when I stumbled across the verse from Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” on a friend’s Facebook post.

God used a person’s encouraging Facebook post to change my focus from the fear and anxiety I was experiencing to the good and courageous things people were doing in spite of their fear.  Christians living out their faith and testifying about it helped put the brakes on the fear and anxiety I was experiencing.

I saw people encouraging one another on social media instead of criticizing. Instead of complaining what others were doing, they were helping each other. I saw people sharing their struggles only to be lifted up. I saw family reaching out to one another that don’t normally interact. And, I saw the church adapting to the needs of her people through technology.

So, thank you to those who posted “the good things that men need to hear” and spoke out in spite of your fear. To the people and priests who lived out their faith online in new and creative ways to bring us together and keep us uplifted with the truth, I say thank you. To those who made me laugh by sharing the messy and beautiful joys of quarantine family life, I say thank you. To those who chose to uphold what is true and beautiful instead of adding to the hysteria, thank you. And to those who reminded me that faith is greater than fear, I say again thank you.