Guided by Faith
By Dan Moore
The young boy was frightened. He had become ill amid the pandemic. Beside him in the room was his father, also suffering from the same malaise. Here they were the two “men of the family,” a nine-year-old and his 31-year-old father. They became more ill, and soon the father passed away. Now the man of the family was a nine-year-old boy with his mother (pregnant) and four sisters. The healthy, robust bread winner was gone. Covid 2020? No, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.
The boy was my father and the robust bread winner, my grandfather. Spanish Flu is an interesting tag line since the pandemic did not originate in Spain. Spain was not in WW 1 and therefore, did not openly report when the outbreak affected them. The allies and Germany would not report because it might show weakness, and in fact, there was fear of being charged with sedition if you spoke out about the pandemic. Schools and churches were closed. Personal hygiene, quarantining the sick and wearing masks were all part of the effort to stop the pandemic. San Francisco implemented a $5 - $10 “mask slacker” fine ($85 - $170 today), and on November 9, 1918, 1,000 people were arrested and taken to jail. Sound familiar?
Powerful microscopes to identify the virus did not even exist. The first licensed vaccine in America was available in the 1940s and was first used on soldiers in WW 2. It was 1946 before the American public got its first flu vaccine. In October 1918 (the year my grandfather died), there were 195,000 deaths recorded in the U.S. It was one of the deadliest months in the 20th century in America. In all, one-third of the world’s population contracted the Spanish Flu, and somewhere between 50,000,000 and 100,000,000 people died worldwide. More people died in America from flu than from all the 20th century wars combined.
Why am I writing this? Because God is in control. Saving faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior is not “blind faith.”
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11:1. Faith is substance and evidence.
Isaiah 9:2 and Matthew 4:16 reflect “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.” Faith brings light, not blindness. We should be guided by our enduring faith in God and use the LIGHT that he shares with us to be discerning about how we process what we hear from all sources, and how we respond or behave. We should pray for discernment particularly when studying Scripture, lest we be led astray by false statements, teaching or doctrines.
The nine-year-old man of the house began sweeping out a blacksmith’s shop to earn $.10 for a loaf of bread for his family. His family tree includes ministers, missionaries and a faith-based film maker. Don’t tell me God is not in control.
Author Bio
Dan has worked 45 years in the trucking industry and has been privileged to serve as a Bible study leader at both Council Road and at First Church TA – OKC (truck stop ministry that is supported by CRBC). He has also authored Christmas and Easter dramas and is thrilled to have written this year’s Christmas book for children.