I am so proud and appreciative of our church family for the ways in which you are all working so hard to shelter in place, social distance and live within the orders we have been given. For many of you this causes immense frustration and hardship, so thank you on behalf of us all
I was wondering how many of you have read the most recent circular for our County Health Officer Dr Scott Morrow. As I read it I think I began to appreciate the conflicted emotions that he expresses
“As I write this, I am both immensely grateful and exceedingly disappointed. We are in a grave crisis”
I am grateful that many people are taking this seriously and are doing everything they can to slow the spread of this virus. You are heroes for doing this.
I am deeply grateful for and everyone should thank God for our first responders and our front line medical and public health personnel. They are taking on personal risk to take care of you. They are heroes for doing this.
My disappointment stems from the fact that many people just aren’t taking this seriously and going about their business as if nothing has changed.
In my reading through the Bible this year this morning I began the book of Deuteronomy. Of course, this awakened so many memories of our journey through the book together at New Life last year. But what struck me this morning was the similarity between what Dr Morrow says and the message Moses decays to the Israelites. “If you want to be safe”, Dr Morrow says, “you must ALL follow the guidelines otherwise you show great disrespect for the community”. “If you want to experience a land flowing with milk and honey”, says Moses, “you must follow the laws God has set out for you.”
What a challenge this is to our cultural obsession with “independence” and what we call “freedom.” Could it be that through this difficult time God is giving us an opportunity to rethink the degree to which we both value and recognize how much we need to prioritize our communities’ needs before our own? What do you think?
From the Zebra Bag 
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