What Does Your Contact Tracing Look Like?

Gò0dNews for Everyone

What Does Your Contact Tracing Look Like?

by Virginia Piper

Contact tracing is a term we all now associate with the COVID-19 infection. It’s a strategy used by the medical community to show the spread of the virus from an infected person to others and then from those who have been exposed and infected on to others. It has the potential to be endless. In the past year, we’ve seen this phenomenon go through a population, impacting not only communities but

states, countries, and then the entire world. Once it reaches mammoth proportions and infects literally thousands of people, the illness is referred to as a pandemic.

Looking through a spiritual lens using the same contact tracing concept, how many of us would be able to trace Jesus through the encounters we make? The current situation we are in doesn’t change the mission we are on. Our mission is to work within our circumstances and share Jesus with others. We are not called to practice à la carte Christianity, allowing ourselves the option to pick and choose certain aspects of the Gospel and eliminating those facets that are not convenient due to the current state of affairs.

When Jesus walked among us, His circumstances included a life spent under the tyranny of Roman rule. Every street corner boasted multiple shops peddling idols for every kind of god the people chose to worship. Disease, filth, and poverty surrounded Him. His purpose and mission wasn’t halted because of the circumstances He lived in. On the contrary, the circumstances were perfect for Him to bring the hope we so desperately need. We must look at our own lives and ask ourselves, have we have used this time in history, our circumstances, to benefit the Kingdom? Or have we used this time of lockdown and quarantine as a welcome excuse to shelve our Bibles and cease praying? Have we become lazy Christians?

If we wait until the perfect time to accomplish something great for God, then we will miss our chance to spread the Gospel. We have always lived in an imperfect world and always will. Jesus’ story is so remarkable not only because He brought our redemption but because He accomplished so much in a world just like ours—terribly fractured and broken.

Reading through the Scriptures, we can trace Jesus through the encounters He made. His encounters changed lives, from Lazarus and Mary Magdalene to the Twelve Disciples, Roman citizens, and beyond the borders of Israel. Their contacts and encounters exponentially multiplied, leading to millions of others down through the ages and to you and me. Much like how the coronavirus spreads, each encounter, in turn, takes the hope of the Gospel to others where we can reach pandemic proportions for Christ.

What does your contact tracing show you? How many encounters for Christ have you made? Consider the impact we could make if we would intentionally spread the Gospel as this virus has spread.

About The Author

Virginia Piper, RN, BSN, M SpEd. From Air Force Med Tech to Registered Nurse, Virginia’s almost 30 years as a professional nurse has taken her from military to hospital to nursing home to insurance company. Her experience as an advocate in the disability community began when her son Andrew began struggling with his education and grew when her son George was born with Down Syndrome. Her advocacy led her to return to school to get her Masters in Special Education and continued with positions at LifeLine, Inc., the ARC of Hamilton County, and the ARC of Tennessee. Virginia has served on multiple local and state-wide boards through the years and continues to be one of LifeLine’s Parent Mentors. In 2018, based on her personal life experiences, Virginia combined her training experience and furniture refinishing hobby and began a ministry to women struggling to understand who they are in Christ. Ashes to Beauty is based on Isaiah 61:3. You can find more information about her ministry at Ashes to Beauty – Ministry of Renewal and Transformation.