“To Mask or not to Mask”
When I get to heaven one of the things (I think ) I’m going to do after I’ve been worshipping the Lord, praising and dancing, is to lovingly call out Adam and Eve for choosing to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil. I just want to remind them of how much drama they have caused us by eating the tree’s fruit and giving us the inherited power of deciding for ourselves what is right and wrong. Doesn’t matter if it is obviously wrong and not good for us: “if loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right…” If we want it, we get it. If we want to do it, we do it (consequences be damned, we’ll pay the price later). Doesn’t matter if it is obviously right and makes sense, if we don’t want to do it, we’re not going to (or will drag our feet getting there).
As we look to celebrate “Independence Day” I’m struck at how some Americans fall prey to “Me”-ism. My husband preached about it in his sermon “Love Gives” in November of last year. Rather than living a lifestyle of being Agape-type givers and giving out of ourselves, we’re more focused on ‘what’s in it for me?’ Our individual comforts and conveniences are paramount. Woe be to anyone who seeks to impinge on or usurp our individual rights. I do understand the principle, after all the zeitgeist of America is one of ‘rugged, capitalist-based individualism.’ We proudly celebrate our individual freedoms. The pillars of our country’s institution are founded upon (for some) the honoring and recognizing of individual liberty. It’s one of the reasons (before the coronavirus began overtaking our country) people from other countries wanted to come here, so that they could also enjoy the ‘privileges’ of living in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave.’
However, sometimes with the same breath that we celebrate and declare our individual rights, we also declare our support of and belief in Christianity. Which is interesting because Christianity is not grounded in individualism. The Christian principle found in the scriptures popularly referred to as “the Golden Rule” Matthew 7:12, and Luke 6:31 - along with the “Great Commandment,” the words of our Lord Jesus Christ found in Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:29-31 and Luke 10:27, reveal we are also called in our declared, overwhelming love of God to love and treat others as we, ourselves want to be treated. We are called to practice and seek peace, and justice for everyone. In other words, not to give in to ‘Me’-ism, but to give out of ourselves, forego our own comforts and desires for the purpose of helping and lifting up others.
I guess the question is, which principle do we really live by?
