On Face Masks, etc.

Ｏｎ Ｆａｃｅ Ｍａｓｋｓ， ｅｔｃ．．．

Folks are making lots of noise one way or the other about face masks. They claim that somehow it is an invasion of personal freedom to have to wear a facial covering. It is a horrible imposition plus deleterious or even deadly to wear one.

Can we examine these contentions logically?

𝑭𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔—

Then why do doctors, nurses, dentists, and hygienists wear them?

If they are so dangerous and robbing the wearer of vital oxygen, why do you entrust your health care to someone who is compromised to the point of being anoxic or nearly dead?

Are they a bother? Yes. I can't use my reading glasses while wearing a mask because the lenses steam up. But that's not the same thing.

𝑭𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝑬𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑳𝒊𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒚—

Uh-huh.  Maybe.

We went through this in 1918. And I know how to say "no" if the push and requirements become too much and actually becomes a moral issue.

However, let's think about your response to what Government asks you to do:

Certainly you must be refusing to wear a seat belt because the Government told you too and you don't like someone telling you what to do? How about that helmet while riding a bike or a motorcycle? You ignore that too, right? The government told you to buy auto insurance and the government told you to submit to the requirements to get a driver's license. You ignore those too, don't you?

The government told you that you should drive on a certain side of the road, stop when a certain color appears, refrain from going faster than a certain arbitrary speed randomly posted here and there. You ignore all of those too, don't you?

𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆. And maybe you are starting to chafe against what I'm saying. I don't know and it doesn't really matter. Yes, we are called to obey our Civil Authority (Romans 13). And yes, we are supposed to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

But how in the world is wearing a face covering suddenly a moral issue and a litmus test for spirituality? Paul tells his readers in Corinth not to use their liberty to destroy the weaker brother who is still concerned about many things. This is a modern example of those issues. Thus, if my brother is concerned about Covid-19, I will wear a mask in his presence even though I know that it probably does little one way of the other. If my brother is immune compromised, I will certainly wear a mask and practice social distancing because I love him and I want to do the best for him by all I do. If my brother is uncomfortable with visiting in person, then I will call him by phone, or text, or email, and help him out by bringing groceries to him as he needs.

In all of this, I will be all things to all men and seek to be the winsome light of the Gospel to those around me. I don't have much influence in this world, but I sure as tooting am not going to mess up the tiny influence that I have in my small corner of the world.

In short, I am not going to make wearing a mask or not a moral hill upon which I stake my claim. There are far larger issues. There are far greater summits to claim. If somehow my wearing a mask helps my neighbor, either psychologically or by prevention of disease, then I will wear the mask. I am to become all things to all people so as to win some to Christ.

In View of Current Events

I have been numb.

Mind bendingly numb.

The events of the last few days capped off an insane news cycle so as to leave the mind wondering which end might be up.  There is no sense to the travesty of justice and the carnage of innocent lives.  I can't begin to explain it on a normal, 2D sort of level.  So I won't even try.

I thought about the joy of seeing flower bloom and rivers flow down their mountain channels to where they widen out into a broad confluence of many waters.  I smiled remembering a gorgeous sunrise over the hills with mist rising up in splendor at the first kiss of the sun's touch.  I also recalled with joy as I first held our children minutes after their arrival in this world—so fragile, so helpless, so full of potential. 

I almost introverted and went full "Ecclesiastes," saying that it's all meaningless and a huge vanity—what's the point of it all since evil is advancing!?

However there are some other things that I keep coming back to.  God is still God.  He has not abdicated nor given up.  He is not pacing back and forth in heaven worried over this latest development.  No, He who called the stars forth by name is still calling all the shots in this grand game of life.  Evil may think that it holds an advantage and seemingly has the upper hand, but our God is still Sovereign and in control.

(No, God does not sanction evil nor condone bad things to happen.  Yet because He has given His creatures choice and free-will, all that they do is their own choice and out of their own desires.  He permits and human kind commits.  Yet God limits and mutes the full force of evil's intent.)

So I can rest in the security of a Sovereign God who is completely in control and completely good and totally loving.  I can trust His promises that He will do all to make me conform to the image of His Son and thus make me ready and fit to dwell with Him forever.

This world is not my home; I'm just passing through.  All the things of this earth are growing strangely dim as I view them through Heaven's lens.

That is not to say that I have given up on this world—if fact, quite the opposite.

It is because I see Heaven and God's kingdom that I also see the one solution that is necessary for this poor, dispairing and wretched world.  The solution is Jesus Christ.  We all need to submit to Him and repent of our sinful, selfish ways.  Our society has become more and more out of wack by throwing God out of the equation. 

Some would say, "Oh, there' always been murder and hate around."

Yeah.  But at this level of craziness?  When in the history of the USA have there been multiple instances of people targeting police throughout the country in the same week?  What about the other sorts of violent crimes that seem to rise up in the news feed?

No, things are out of wack because we are not right with God.  Our society has not based its rubric on God's standard.  In fact, God's standard is pretty much thrown out and despised.

So I will say it again.  The only solution to our national problem is to repent, confess our sins and then forsake all of our sins.  This means reading the Bible to see what God says are sins.  It also means giving up selfish definitions of autonomy and personal control. 

God commands it.  Repent.

The consequences are becoming more and more dire if you do not.