What a crazy world out there as we see the response to the Covid-19 corona virus which appears to have started in Wuhan, China.  As the virus has spread to pretty much every country on the globe, we have witnessed how people panic in times of crises, with some countries, like Italy and France on total lockdown, stock markets plunging, travel restricted, schools and other business establishments closing temporarily, sports shutting down—even the NCAA basketball’s “March Madness” being cancelled. Broadway and Disneyland have closed.  Yesterday, many church-goers had to stay home and stream the message on line.      And people are panicking and cleaning off the shelves in stores of canned goods, bread, and especially toilet paper!  Last week our son, who lives near Portland, sent us a couple pictures of totally empty shelves in a Target store. The WinCo store, normally open 24 hours a day had to close to clean up the mess shoppers had made and to try to restock. We were thinking that wouldn’t happen here, but as we visited our local grocery store on Saturday, sure enough, the toilet paper shelf was empty and several others were nearly so!  People are people, subject to fear and panic, no matter where they live.  There have been accounts of fights as shoppers try to get the last package of toilet paper in the store—crazy!                             I did a little Bible search and found that fear is mentioned some 400 times and 331 times we are told to “fear not” (38 times in Isaiah alone, and 19 times in Luke).  Thirty-three time we are told: “do not be afraid.” The Greek word for “fear” in the New Testament is phobeo (fob-eh’o), from which we get our word “phobia.”  Although the word “panic” doesn’t appear in Scripture, it is often the result of fear. It refers to “a sudden, unreasoning, hysterical fear, often spreading quickly, such as might happen in a crowded auditorium if someone shouts ‘fire’.”   When people panic—as has been happening in the world over the spread of the corona virus—they lose their reasoning powers and common sense, and act irrationally, which just exacerbates the whole situation. Obviously the media hasn’t helped either!