It has been a challenge to absorb the media coverage of the possible swine flu pandemic while being quite sick with a bug myself. I keep checking to see if my obituary is in the Boston Globe, but so far I haven’t seen it. That’s good news -- as far as I’m concerned.

I remember reading Albert Camus back in my years of restless wandering and searching for faith. Camus saw life as absurd and without meaning, yet the existentialist kept looking for ways to find hope.

Albert Camus book’s The Plague, like the current crisis, called for my involvement. I could not ignore the big questions it posed because Nell and I lived in Huemoz, Switzerland, and from our little chalet I could look down the mountain at the ruins of Old Huemoz, which had been abandoned when hit by the bubonic plague hundreds of years before. This gave a sense of urgency to the question of how God was involved in the bad things and evil that happens to humans.

Camus book sets up the dilemma for us as rats bring the plague into town. He makes his readers face a choice: either they join sides with the doctor and fight the plague, or they join sides with the priest and not struggle against the plague. If the way of the doctor is chosen, we are not only fighting the plague, but automatically fighting God. If we join the priest, then while accepting God’s will, we are failing our fellow humans.

Francis Schaeffer, the godly theologian who lured me to study with him at L’Abri in Huemoz saw Camus’ quandary as something the Christian need not face. Camus was making a false choice, for there is a better solution that God has provided. The Christian believer has every reason to fight evil and the things that are wrong. As believers, we do not need to join sides with the doctor and oppose God by fighting the plague. We do not need to join with the priest to be on God’s side yet also become anti-human by not fighting the plague.

We do not need to fit into this either-or dilemma of Camus. Jesus shows us a different way. In John 11 we find him standing at the tomb of Lazarus, and he is both crying and angry at the death of his friend. We understand his tears, but need to marvel at his anger. Jesus was angry at death, and the broken, abnormal, death-inhabited world that had been caused by sin. To bring Camus into this, Jesus Christ hated the evil, hated the plague. Jesus, God incarnate, could hate the evil without hating himself, because he was not the cause of the plague.

As Christians, we can fight the evil wrongs in the world and know that as we work against them, God hates them, too. In fact, God hates evil so much that he provides the hope of redemption. God did this through a sacrifice that was incredibly costly to himself.

I do not know if we are facing a coming pandemic of swine flu that will rival the Black Death of ages past. I do know we can resist all the plagues of our world and fight against them with every resource we have, confident that God hates evil, too. And if the pandemic does not materialize and we do not witness catastrophic, worldwide loss? We can still resist the little evils in our lives, knowing that God cares about the the small things that plague us as well. My Bible says he even sees when a sparrow falls. So prepare for the big one -- stay healthy, wash your hands and cover your mouth when you cough. But also prepare for the times when you can resist little wrongs by offering an encouraging world or a heartfelt hug to those looking for hope in their lives. And don’t forget to share the good news of Jesus Christ, who is the real hope of this wonderful, yet damaged world.