Bind the spirit of fear

TRACKING _____During one of the many online trainings I have being a guest speaker since the Coronavirus lockdown crisis began, I remember giving the advice in the headline to the participants.

The particular session was about how to adjust to Post-COVID work situation. I gave the advice against the background of fear many people seem to be having about their future.

Many are so confused about what the future holds for them that they are not sure of what to do, especially those who have lost their jobs or many who can see the disengagement letter coming their way.

The situation is not helped by the numerous cases of sudden death, many of whom are COVID-19 related and others that are not.

“I am just tired of everything,” a colleague told me when I tried to follow up on a previous discussion about an idea we agreed she should start.

“So many overwhelming things going on…. I am discouraged and almost losing the will to exert energy on anything these days,” she added, just like another told me she is struggling to get over the lockdown experience and finds it difficult to go out these days.

One cannot deny the psychological impact of the sad news all over. You get to work and hear the news of a colleague you were not aware he or she was seriously sick. You get a call and the person at the other end is telling you of the death of someone well known to you.

Not even the high and the mighty who can afford the best of healthcare are spared. If money was what needed for the former Chief of Staff, Abah Kyari and former Governor Abiola Ajimobi to survive the Coronavirus infection they had, they would not have died. But alas, they succumbed to the cold hands of death.

During the week, the Health Commissioner who has been in the frontline of the battle against Coronavirus in Ondo state died of the infection and the state governor and some others in the state are also in isolation for testing positive for the dreaded disease.

In Delta, the Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa was also declared positive in a week when the highest daily positive cases were reported by the National Centre for Disease Control.

Who would not be afraid in this prevailing atmosphere of infection and death?

Anyone will, but we can’t afford to be too afraid of death that we should stop living.

Apart from the global Coronavirus crisis that has caused many deaths, death in Shakespeare’s words is a necessary end, it will come when it will come.

Why we should be worried about the prevailing circumstances, we should live life fully while we can still breathe. The choke of Coronavirus can indeed be suffocating, but as long as we are still spared by God’s grace, we must bind the spirit of fear and keep hope alive.

Like a Yoruba saying, we must not die before death comes because it may not come as soon as many fear. In this situation, FEAR may be False Evidence Appearing Real.

Even when there is no one to encourage you because everyone is as fearful as we are, you have to encourage yourself.

This kind of pandemic happened over a hundred years ago and not everyone died. The majority survived to tell the story and moved on to achieve greater things.

Life became better than it was before the pandemic and the general fear of everyone dying did not come to pass.

Here was one of my responses to my troubled colleague:

“Already, June is here and in six months’ time, we will look back and wonder why we didn’t do what we wanted to do. I understand how you feel, but we have to put our trust in the Lord who knows tomorrow.”