Should vaccinated people be afraid?

Many vaccinated people are afraid. They’re afraid that what they were led to believe would help them survive, might ultimately kill them.

Yesterday the CDC released a statement saying there is a possible “safety concern for ischemic stroke in people ages 65 and older who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.”

After almost two years of other confirmed safety concerns over the vaccine, such as menstrual cycle changes, risk of blood clots and especially, myocarditis — it’s clear that the COVID-19 vaccine is less effective and more dangerous than initially reported.

And considering the major increase in young, healthy people, like professional athletes, suffering cardiac arrests and sudden deaths since the vaccine rollout and mandates: many vaccinated people are afraid.

This is why a young woman in Canada sent me a message saying:

“Hi, brother Samuel. I would like to know your stance on all that is being said on Twitter lately about the vaccine. I know that you took the vaccine in order to marry Annie. Are you worried at all about your life and health? I ask as someone was vaccinated myself. I live in Canada.”

She’s probably referring to tweets like this.

If I was vaccinated I’d be terrified right now.

— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) January 13, 2023

As the young girl mentioned, Canada’s vaccine mandates forced me to get the vaccine in order to get married. In an article about the decision to the vaccine, I said: 

“I do not believe the supposed benefits of the vaccine outweigh its potential healths risks for my body … I worried, for instance, that since the vaccine is known to cause heart problems for some men around my age — getting the vaccine immediately after my body was weakened with COVID could make me even more vulnerable to that side-effect.”

I knew I was risking my health for my fiancée. From the time I exited my house to the time I entered the pharmacy to get the vaccine: death, and only death, was on my mind.

And yet I had peace that day, just as I have peace today. I was deeply concerned about the vaccine, and though I haven’t suffered any health complications from the vaccine — I’m still occasionally concerned.

Nevertheless, I’m not afraid. And if you’re also vaccinated, you shouldn’t be afraid either.

This is because just as the vaccine isn’t the protector of life, as some claim; it also isn’t the author of death, as others suggest. God is the author of life and death. The vaccine doesn’t decide whether I live or die, God does.

In other words, as the missionary Henry Martyn said, “I am immortal until God’s work for me to do is done.”

Meaning, independent from the will of God — nothing can kill us: not COVID, not the vaccine.

It’s interesting. Many of the people who are afraid of the vaccine are a lot like many of the people who are afraid of COVID. Just as some people seem to think getting COVID is a death sentence, other people seem to think getting the vaccine is a death sentence.

Indeed, the vaccine is more dangerous to some people’s health than what “medical experts” and the media report. However, most vaccinated people are probably not at risk of suffering health complications. Otherwise, since most Americans and Canadians are vaccinated, we would have to conclude that the majority of people in America and Canada are either sick or dying from the vaccine.

So if you’re vaccinated, it’s maybe unlikely that you’ll experience health issues from the vaccine. However, that isn’t why you shouldn’t be afraid.

My hope isn’t primarily that I’m in the majority of vaccinated people who won’t suffer serious side-effects or death. My hope is that God numbers my days, not the vaccine (Job 14:5). 

The government’s vaccine mandates may have forced you to get the vaccine, but God allowed you to get it for his own purpose — a purpose that is designed for your good, in life or in death, if you’re a Christian.

The government isn’t in control, God is. God is in control of your heartbeat, not the vaccine. It’s God who authorizes your death, not the vaccine.

Therefore be anxious for nothing. Yes — nothing. Don’t be anxious about getting a stroke, don’t be anxious about getting blood clots, don’t be anxious about having a cardiac arrest, don’t be anxious dying. Be anxious for nothing.

The vaccine cannot stop God’s plans. Even if you die from the vaccine, the primary cause of your death won’t be the vaccine: it would be God’s sovereign plan to take you home to Heaven.

If you’re a Christian, the worst thing that can happen to you, death, is also the best thing that can happen to you: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

So don’t be afraid that you’re vaccinated. You can sleep well at night knowing that he who neither slumbers or sleeps is always in control of your heartbeat.

Originally published at Slow to Write.