I have never enjoyed shopping! I just wanted to get that out there before I proceeded. Perhaps it was growing up where shopping night was every Tuesday and then when we got home we had wieners. Not the fancy kind that gets the whole neighborhood running to your place, the kind that are slender, slimy and always plenty of because no one looks at them and thinks, oh yummy, gotta have some. But I went faithfully with my mother every Tuesday even through a good share of high school, its just what we did. So of course when we had kids my thought was, there you go honey, you got plenty of help at the store so I don't have to go. Now, the older I get the wiser other people become and evidently the kids move out quickly so they can dump it back on me. It isn't that they don't want to be with mom, they just grew up thinking they were being punished. At least wal-mart has other areas that might keep our interest as we wander out of the food aisles and into the 5 dollar movie bin. But in my new investment of time to take my wife shopping I have done pretty good, don't bother asking her I just told you, other than a few times of lacking patience. Now recently thanks to the covid fear I enter a store and realize that I missed the memo that you should be wearing a face mask. Me being the adaptive type decided that if I had to go to the store and other areas that I would take my motorcycle wraps and wear them. They would be just as effective as some of the masks I have seen. Of course as I explained my idea of pulling up at the bank with a dew rag over my face and going up to the check out with one my wife became more insistent I just sit at home and wait for her to return. I looked over and the dogs gave me a look like, it's not so bad we'll save you a seat. Here is my point. Many of us have spent this entire time complaining about not being able to go out, we sit and listen to the reports not knowing what to believe and what to reject. We can't separate the lies from the truth, opinions from facts. I believe the source makes a difference but at the end of the day human intervention corrupts the reports based on emotion, perspective and let's face it, they take an objective truth and make it subjective. So where do we go that we can get the unbiased truth and not worry about warped perspectives? Let's start at my office....just kidding, even I have my opinions as most of you well know. The only place we can turn is to the pages of scripture. Now you might be thinking what does that have to do with our current situation? First off it's truth and truth has value for all things. secondly if you were to open the Bible you would quickly find that there have been many plagues over the years. Oh yeah and the best part for those who don't find value in the Old Testament, the New Testament says they will be more plagues coming. What kind, when and how long? Read your Bible and find out for yourself because if you ask someone else once again you are just reading thier take on it and you need to get this info first hand from a source you can trust. Paul tells Timothy in his fatherly advice, that "all scripture is inspired by God and profitable....... Literally the rendering is "God breathed" and the word profitable is "advantageous, helpful or serviceable". Isn't that what we need in our lives? Won't scripture show us how people of old responded to the threats and reveal how we are to respond now or in the future? Will it not offer us encouragement and strength when we feel depressed or helpless because of our situation. As soon as people quite thinking they have the answers and that the Bible is outdated, the sooner the "Church" can get busy doing what it is supposed to be doing. I hope this finds you where ever you are doing well and keep your eyes verticle because every direction you look horizontally will be dissappointing.
Till next time
P.M.
