I admit that when things started going crazy in mid-March I was among the top skeptics. I thought everything was being blown out of proportion and everyone was overreacting to just a virus and wondered what was the matter with everyone. Most likely I thought that because of my lack of germaphobia.
By God's grace sickness has not been a large part of my life story. I've had many of hard blows that have knocked me to the ground, but health and sickness has not been one of them. Even now I think of how blessed I am when I have been such a poor steward of my body and my health for most of my life and I don't know why.
I have been doing many things to improve my health over the past few years praying and trusting God would bless my efforts. To this day, I continue to remain in good health and for that I am grateful.
So when all of the shut down began to happen and I heard about people wearing masks, I seriously thought they were nuts. Why would you do that? What's the point?
Then someone I knew in healthy condition died.
I saw posts from a dear Sister who has a seriously medically fragile child.
I started looking at the numbers in several different places and letting God teach me through the knowledge He gave me in nursing school and through the independent study I have done over the past few years as I have studied health and I realized, this is far more serious than I thought.
I started understanding it's not just about me it's about my neighbors. I also realized that I was one of the immune compromised because I'm pregnant with gestational diabetes.
I became more rigorous with my oils, my cleaning of the home and staying home as much as possible, but I still refused to let it effect what I did when I went out. "I don't need a mask. I'm totally fine," is what I thought.
At my last OB appointment my doctor urged me strongly to wear a mask when going to the store. I had one in the car to say I had one but had no intention of wearing it. On the way to the car from my appointment, I ended up in the elevator with two elderly gentlemen, both wearing masks. One of them in sweet concern asked me, "Where's your mask?"
I smiled at him and said, "I'm just going to see my doctor and they are all covered. I've got one in the car." He seemed to "understand" and acknowledge the doctors were being careful, but it got me thinking.
While I'm out, I go ahead and get groceries, so when I got to Lidl I put on the mask Jim had brought home from a co-worker whose friend had made one for each nurse in the unit. It is cloth so not as bad as the plastic hospital masks, but half way through the store I was struggling to breathe and thought, "This is nuts! I'm going to die from wearing the mask!"
Yes, a little extreme I know, but the truth was I didn't want to wear the mask! It was uncomfortable and inconvenient and I straight up didn't like it. I had two more stops to make and decided I tried it and I wasn't going to wear the mask in the other two stores. And I didn't.
Most everyone else was wearing one, so I thought that was good enough. Herd masking right???
Over the next week I thought about it a little, but not much. Then Monday night, Jim and I watched a sermon from Pastor Richard Chin as part of our T4G online ticket. He taught on being Captured by Christ with Colossians 3 as his text. This chapter of God's Word teaches us to put our minds on things above and not on earthly things. We're to seek to put to death anything that is worldly and of the flesh and clothe ourselves in Christ righteousness, loving others the way Christ loves us.
"So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity." Colossians 3:12-14
To be captured by Christ is to live for Him and His glory and not for ourselves. Pastor Richard talked about other crisis that others of the faith had lived through and shared this quote from Martin Luther:
"I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid persons and places where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, He will surely find me and I have done what He has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God."
This quote has stayed with me all week.
When I went to the grocery store on Wednesday I decided I would wear my mask.
And I did.
I had four stops to make because of the various items needed and I was not looking forward to wearing this mask. But as I got in the car after making two stops I realized that by wearing my mask I was living out my God-fearing faith by loving my neighbor as myself.
It is easy to take this command to mean I want others to do to me what I want done to me, but as I sat with my mask on looking at everyone else with their masks on God said, "No, it's doing for them what they want done for them."
I might be a healthy person that rarely gets sick, but what about everyone in the store with me? I don't know what they're fighting. I don't know if they are terrified of getting sick or maybe have major health problems, but have to come out because they have no one to help. They may even think I don't care about them because I'm not wearing one.
I also thought about my baby. It's not loving my baby to willingly put myself in unnecessary risk, tempting God because I don't want to deal with the nuisance of wearing a mask. It's not loving my husband, who needs to work, or my other children to be so cavalier because I don't get sick.
How selfish I had been. How I had loved my comfort instead of helping others feel at ease. How dare I treat human life so callously.
I repented right then and their and asked God to continue to show me where I was falling short in loving others.
I'm still not a germaphobe. I'm still not afraid of getting sick.
But I resonate completely with Colossians 3 to put on love and bear with others with a compassionate heart, kindness, meekness and patience as we face this pandemic together. I resonate with Martin Luther that says I will do what is right and necessary according to what God has directed so that no matter what may come, I have not tempted my God and done what He has expected of me.
So I encourage you today, love your neighbor as yourself.
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