Is it possible for something as deadly, detrimental, and debilitating as the COVID-19 pandemic to have a positive effect or silver lining? Can it be that something good and constructive can come out of the evil and grief that has been inflicted globally upon mankind by this killer disease that has claimed the lives of millions? This nightmarish plague has altered many of our norms and routines. Well, as hard to believe as it might be for most, I am in the number of those who believe that COVID-19 has taught us a few good lessons that it would behoove us to heed and learn from. I will devote my column today to presenting and briefly commenting on the positive effect of COVID-19. The very heading of our subject today is perhaps a paradox.

The Swift Development of Effective Vaccines
Assuredly, the most positive thing that has come out of the COVID-19 crisis is the rocket speed development of the various vaccines that have proven to be effective, if taken in time. Perhaps using the term “rocket speed” development is somewhat misleading when we consider that the basic formula for the vaccines already existed. This gave the pharmaceutical companies a head start in their research and development. The COVID-19 pandemic drove our disease experts and researchers to the task of finding a quick and effective solution to the problem. Though we have not completely gotten over the virus, we now have a very practical and effective solution for it and hopefully, future variants to come.

A True Appreciation to What We Took for Granted
Without doubt or denial, one of the fruits of COVID-19 that fits into the plus and positive category is an appreciation to the many things that we once took for granted before the pandemic hit. This plague disrupted, disturbed, and perhaps permanently altered quite a few of our normal and routine way of doing things. I venture to say that not since World War II have our nation and culture been so drastically troubled and altered in its routines and normal way of doing things than what the COVID-19 effect adversely imposed upon us from the gatherings at religious services to how our children attended school, to the market and workplace. Practically, every activity away from home and every environment or venue where people gathered were affected. Truly our routines and normal way of doing things were disrupted, disturbed, and perhaps indefinitely changed. This has caused many of us to truly appreciate what we perhaps once took for granted.

Forced to Use
the Internet
I know that in speaking for myself, I am probably speaking for many in this section of my column today. Before the pandemic hit, I was not a user of the internet. This was especially true then and even now in a personal way, though at the church, we enlisted the use of social media for what might be called necessary business transactions. However, COVID-19 and its adverse effect on the way we gathered together forced me out of the stone age (so to speak) into the 21st century. Though the devil meant if for the evil, I quickly came to realize that it was a godsend. Whereas, before the COVID-19 pandemic, I was only able to minister to hundreds who gathered at one of our two locations in Dillon and Florence.
When we invested in and upgraded our media ministry and internet capacity, we are now reaching literally multiple thousands across the nation and around the world in countries in Africa, India, Italy, and beyond where I have traveled extensively preaching, teaching, and lifting up Jesus Christ. The Lord used the pandemic to extend my ministry to other nations and languages through the use of the internet.

A Greater Appreciation
of Health and Life
Again, in this final section, I will share my sentiments and perception about what positive effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on me.
I know that I am not alone when I assert that the detrimental effect that the virus had on so many people through hospitalizations, some fighting to survive on ventilators, and far too many ultimately dying has given me a greater appreciation of both health and life. When people you know personally and even intimately (who are endeared to you) die in scores and sequence, it automatically causes you to appreciate your health and life. This is especially true when they die from the same cause or disease. I find it difficult to see certain people who are unmoved or indifferent when they see and know people who are dying all around them and it does not cause them to consider the quality of their own health and lives.
I am truly thankful that I am not in the category of the “dumb and numb” when it comes to appreciating good health and a wholesome life that God has graciously given me. The way that the pandemic has debilitated, complicated, and even wrecked ruin and death on so many has truly made me more thankful and appreciative to God for sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to give me life and have it more abundantly.