You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

Rahm Emanuel

Progressives boldly suggested that the 2008 financial crisis should not go to waste. As Rahm Emanuel argued, it was possible to use it as a lever to force through an agenda that would never have been possible without the crisis. Being on the other side of that agenda, I didn’t like the outcome. Yet I recognize that there are many things, in many dimensions, where we should do things differently, but the tyranny of the status quo reigns. It is often only a shifting of the sand which leads one to consider where to take the next step.

I continue to argue that theologically, we should embrace this virus as part of God’s sovereign plan that is ultimately for His Glory and our good. Yet his ways are inscrutable, and we cannot see the connection between the means and the end–even when we have complete confidence that the ends He has chosen are for our good. It is only when we consider this life as the locus of our joy that we cannot see the possibility for good, even should the coronavirus take our life.

While we cannot know with more than biblically informed speculation what God is doing, we nonetheless must pursue what God calls us to do: redeem the time, because the days are evil. In the context of Ephesians 5, we are admonished to behave in ways that honor God, forsaking the immorality of the world. No doubt that principle is applicable today also, yet our redeeming of the time is more broadly something that requires stewardship of all our gifts–our time, treasure and talents to be sure. But also our attitudes, our thoughts, our disposition to embracing suffering consistent with God’s plan. And yes, we can rejoice always, knowing with certainty we have a better hope, a better future, because we have better promises, and a better covenant.

So what should embracing our current reality with joy look like? It is so good to be a part of different groups all working hard right now to prepare for both how to get through this virus and how to flourish on the other side. The bottom line in the middle of the post: Now is a great opportunity for us to innovate and make changes in many areas of our lives–we must not waste it. It’s precisely in times of uncertainty that people get more motivated to take action. Necessity is the mother of invention, and also innovation. Further, in organizational terms, defenders of the status quo are much more willing to embrace change, when they fear that the alternative is loss of everything. Let me give just a few areas and briefly cover how we could think about this. For all these areas, we have had plans that are all now in the garbage–dreams of what we were going to do are being replaced with improvizations of what might be possible to do. Here is what we must avoid if we are not to waste the coronavirus–we must avoid the temptation and hope that we can get back to doing things the way we did before.

Individuals: Everyone of us has routines, and many of those routines are disrupted by our new reality. The challenge for us is how to keep our good routines (like daily bible reading, prayer, exercise, stable sleep patterns, etc.) and use this disruption to increase what we know we need to do to improve, but haven’t had the time/impetus to do. For those that have less time (in the sense you’re still doing your full time job and having to learn and do it in a totally different context) take some time to really go through your “to do” list and strip it down to the bare essentials. Maybe some things need to be jettisoned. All of us need to be more intentional and strategic in our relationships. Zoom is an amazing technology that is blessing me in many relationships, albeit a poor substitute for face to face. But since many of those relationships were long distance, its much better than the alternative. Some of us actually have more time now. If you haven’t been disciplined enough to pursue God daily–now is the best time to do so. If you have only one skill that is marketable, now is the time to use online training to beef up your skills and learn new things. Read books/articles that can help improve where you think you might be going post-corona. Definitely pursue healthy exercise that you can; at least daily walks weather and health permitting. I saw one report that the average American is binging eight hours a day on streaming video–those people are wasting the virus. Don’t let that be you.

Firms/Businesses/Organizations. You know the things you should have been doing, that you haven’t done for various reasons. Necessity is going to make many firms release people. Make sure you are intentional about which employees you release–As Jim Collins would say, make sure you’re getting the wrong people off the bus. There will be a time for the bus to leave the station again; clearing those that are unwilling to embrace your firm’s goals with technical competence will leave space to bring the right people on the bus in the future. Similarly, businesses that are in stronger positions need to not hunker down in fear. Contrary to my recommendation above, many firms will be making wholesale cuts to personnel–there will be good people available that you can bring on your team now. Use this time to be building your team for the aftermath. People are the most important asset, and you’ll never have a better time to stock up on talent than right now. If you can at all pull it off, do it! Inaction due to fear is not prudence, so carefully consider how you can strengthen your organization for the opportunities that are coming. After the tech bubble burst in 2000, many talented people were let go, and that enabled those firms that survived to cherry pick the cream. While you don’t wish other organizations ill, make sure you are ready act when opportunity arises.

Churches: You have longed to have your body be more active and engaged in ministry. And now you have no choice–you can’t meet face to face and your zoom/skype meetings are only a limited part of the solution. Drafting more of your body to reach out in connecting opportunities is essential to not lose track of people; use this time to bring key potential connective tissue members in to your ministry focus with the ask that they reach out to others. Divvy up all the members and the attenders; this may be an opportunity for those attenders to see the need to become members, and they’re more likely when engaged by others in the body. This happens at some level organically in every church, but our task to expand this such that it becomes part of our DNA on the other side. Imagine a body that can get together on Sundays and is–but is also connecting and checking in on each other throughout the week, praying for each other and doing the one-anothers even more effectively. Let’s build discipleship during this time to springboard into a more beautiful bride on the other.

Higher Education: Higher education has a fantastic opportunity, but only a few will be able to take it. Most public schools and private schools with large endowments are waiting to get back to normal. To the extent they have administrations that want to change, their faculty will be most reluctant to embrace that change–they’ll want to do what they’ve always done, and expect either the taxpayer or the large endowment to make that happen. Many of the smaller schools (generally private schools w<1000 students) that were financially challenged prior to the virus will likely not be able to make it. So private schools that are relatively healthy financially and those that have enough public $$ to survive but not enough to continue business as usual will have the possibility of embracing the change we all know needs to happen. Students cannot continue paying increased costs at greater than inflation rates, and, in many cases (but not all!) faculty/staff are not paid salaries that are even close with private sector alternatives. There is only one solution–we must become more efficient, and technology has to lead the way–as in every other endeavor. Many bureaucratic rules are being waived to get through this. Find the ones that released the most productivity and fight to the death to ensure they don’t come back in the fall. Zoom classes and technology are necessity for many schools. What opportunities are there to incorporate this as a part of our regular processes to allow more efficient content delivery going forward? Other parts of the university processes need to be asking the same questions. I don’t know the answers here, but I’m quite certain that many of the things we are all doing as a necessity today we will find need to continue on the other side.

I implore each of us, let’s not spend our day dreaming about what it would be like to return to the way we were. We need to dream about the way the world and our narrow slice could become. Let’s not waste this virus!