What can we do when we’re asked to stay at home to avoid the spread of a virus and yet people are out there at the verge of death, many of whom could use a helping hand?
I still remember the day the Covid pandemic and its aftermath became real to me. My grandpa had tested +ve for COVID in the second wave. For a whole year, I was so cocooned in my own social-distancing-stay-at-home reality that I never quite knew that this is the outside reality if you end up as one among the millions affected by COVID. I remember being outside the hospital with my family and calling up other hospitals to check if there were any beds available. Eventually my grandpa got treated and recovered completely. He is back to usual life. But I knew that many weren’t.
How could I possibly help while stuck within 4 walls? It started off as a WhatsApp status that popped up on my screen from a contact. I reached out and enquired more about this voluntary group that a friend had posted about. Soon enough I was part of a WhatsApp group comprising of 40 to 60 people, all from different backgrounds but with one aim – HOW CAN I HELP?
Their procedure was simple, yet effective. Find a hospital bed for the sick by reaching out to hospitals by phone. There were no influential people backing us, nor were there any influential people involved. It was quite literally common people gathered together to make an effort to help, so that somewhere, someone, stranded and completely hopeless can hear, ‘Hey, we are here for you. We will do our best to help you and make sure you are not doing this alone.’
We did not make it in so many cases because quite literally the statistics don’t work. If there are only 550 hospital beds in a particular place, 100 new people cannot afford to get sick every day of the week. But that was the reality. So, we felt the frustration of the families, felt angry with those that suffered from corruption in hospitals, and shared the grief of those who lost their loved one. We did make a change in some people’s lives but that is something I don’t wish to emphasize on. Because too often our focus is on ‘What change can I make?’ or ‘How big will that change be?’ But that focus always makes me feel like a tiny speck in the enormity of life. I simply prefer to focus on not being a mute spectator and to put in that effort, big or small.
The Bible beautifully narrates a story about four men who, when they realized they couldn’t reach Jesus amidst a crowded room, opened the roof and used ropes to let down a paralyzed man so that Jesus could heal him. It is our God-ordained responsibility to help people around us, to bring them closer to a chance of healing and hope. And when there is a willingness to help, people will find a way.
This is the gospel too. When we needed hope, God found a way. He sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross so that we can experience God’s presence. He found a way to pay for our sins without losing us as His children.
Thank God for Jesus, for those four men, and for the hundreds of volunteers in this pandemic who had the willingness and found a way to help.
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