When haste will make things even worse...

There is a lot of bantering back and forth about the President's comments today about opening churches this weekend. I'm going to avoid the political implications and motives here, and instead tell you a personal story.

Almost six weeks ago, my Dad began a difficult medical journey that took him to the VA Hospital for about 5 days, then to subacute care at Elderwood for three weeks, and now he has been in a memory care unit at a facility in Cheektowaga for the past 2 weeks. When he entered the VA, I dropped him off at the Emergency Room, and I have not been able to see him in person since. Neither, of course, has my Mom, who has now been without the love of her life for six weeks - the man to whom she has been married for 66 years. She will be celebrating her birthday next week, and their anniversary is in June, and she will likely not be able to see my Dad for either of them.

And my Dad, who suffers from dementia, has a hard time understanding where exactly he is and why we can't be there with him. Each day my Mom and one of my siblings or I has to tell him again that we can't be there "because of the virus" and how we have to keep him safe.

These are the real consequences of having our community shut down to prevent infecting people with this deadly, vicious virus called COVID-19. What are the consequences of opening things too early? They are simply this - that when it is realized that we rushed to open up, and we moved sooner than we should have, new sanctions will have to be put in place, and we will lock down again, and instead of "opening up", we will prolong this horrid agony even longer than necessary.

So when you want to scream about your "rights", and when you insist that we open churches for "religious freedom", and when you want to go to church because you're missing it, I'd like you to think about my Dad - and think about how much he is missing his family and how much we are torn apart not being with him.

We, of course, are not alone - this is a story that is told about all sorts of folks across the country. We all are the Body of Christ. Can you not have enough respect for the dignity and pain of other parts of the Body to sacrifice for another few weeks, or a couple of months, or whatever it takes to ensure the safety for enough of the Body as practical? Can you not put yourself out for the sake of the common good? Can you not actually live Christ's law of love? For my Dad's sake, I hope that you can.