Mission Essential
Mission Essential. Those two words sound really important, do they not? They imply some sort of critical need an organization or a society has. I've been on the receiving end of that moniker more than once in my life. A couple of times it meant I got to go to work without any guarantees that I'd be paid for the time I got to go. I always was, but I never got any extra vacation time for the time I worked and others were furloughed and got paid for being off work. I don't say that in a mean way. It's just part and parcel of the gig I have been blessed to have for a very long time.
I saw a disturbing set of comments from the Lt. Governor of the Republic of Texas. I have a co-worker who is from Ft. Worth and he's reminded all of us that, technically, Texas is still a Republic, but that's a rabbit trail for another day. Anyway, he seems to be concerned that we're going to break the economy so bad that it won't recover by staying home, so it's time for the old and sick to take one for the team and just let everybody else get back to normal.
I have to stay off social media right now. I shared a news article about this, and about some things that appear to be topics of discussion among our leadership in Washington, DC that suggest this is starting to get some traction. A friend of mine suggested my purpose for sharing that particular post was "hatred". In that I have a disdain for such ideas, I suppose he may have had a point. In one point of our brief conversation, he told me I was being "played". My response was, "One of us is being played. It ain't me."
To the hatred comment I replied that first, it was a hoax. Then it not a big deal. Then it was under control. Then it was H1N1 was worse, but then math happened, and that turned out to not be right, either. Then I told him this. Yup. One of us is being played.....
Who's playing you?
My mom hasn't seen news. She's not understood the gravity of just how serious this is, except from what she's seen on social media. She yelled at me when I told her to quit watching Fox News that she has absolutely no access to stuff like that. I forgot she doesn't have cable and her condo is situated such that an indoor tv antenna doesn't work. She has netflix. I told her to download a streaming app for her phone.
My mom wants to help. God bless her for that. But I told her the best way she could was to STAY HOME. She's 76. She doesn't need to go get a job at WalMart and then become a victim. If she stays home and stays healthy, she's helping by not becoming someone who will require medical treatment. I further had to explain to her that I can't just move in with her because I still get to go to work. (It's a blessing, but I'd rather be home right now). I'm out in this and sooner than later, someone in our organization is going to get this. I don't need to carry it home to my moms.
So I'm limiting the things I do to minimize my exposure to others. I'm using the self check out at the store (which I do anyway because I'm impatient). I'm putting off a trip to the post office until Monday because I have to send some mail return receipt requested. I wiped off the handle at the gas pump and actually avoided going to a store that I would have had to pull the handle on the door of when I was in need of some newspaper to wrap some glassware. I'm not a germophobe. In fact, I've always been of the impression that a little germs were good for you so you had antibodies to them. This thing will flat kill you. Don't be stupid about it.
And yet, people are, and we're finally going to get to the meat and potatoes of the two words I opened with. Mission essential.
Who's mission essential in your mind?
I worship with mostly elderly people on Sunday. They're pretty mission essential to me because they're doing a lot for our community. They have more time than I do, and they're putting it to use! I wouldn't help them right now for nothing because my job is mission essential to our country. I have to go to work with other mission essential people. Their mission essential job is sharing food with people who desperately need it. In whose eyes is what I do more important than theirs?
Are you mission essential? The Lt. Governor of Texas thinks not. Others think that it's an acceptable risk to lose 3% of the population so they can get busy with their lives again. 3% of the American population is somewhere around 6.6 million people, by the way. And define mission essential. I think what I do is important, but am I more important than the guy that picks the strawberries? Or what about the people who have to endure insults because they're not letting you have more than one toilet paper package? The folks at the grocery stores seem pretty mission essential to me right now.
And they're so often the ones we take for granted. That it's not an important job and it's OK to mistreat them because YOU didn't get what YOU wanted, the way YOU wanted it, instead of just being grateful you had the chance to even get it at all.
I wonder, who exactly, is expendable in the eyes of people like the aforementioned Lt. Governor. The poor? The homeless? The elderly, sick, or disabled?
For my answer, I looked to Jesus. I don't think He thinks even one is. He healed the sick, touched lepers, ate with sinners. Each to Him was valuable. Each to Him was worth the sacrifice. Each was, and is precious. And yet, how many multitudes turn their back on the One they need the most?
It shouldn't be this way, but we live in a fallen world. And when our elected officials start devaluing human beings, it's time to replace them with people that don't. I don't care what political party they belong to.
I saw a disturbing set of comments from the Lt. Governor of the Republic of Texas. I have a co-worker who is from Ft. Worth and he's reminded all of us that, technically, Texas is still a Republic, but that's a rabbit trail for another day. Anyway, he seems to be concerned that we're going to break the economy so bad that it won't recover by staying home, so it's time for the old and sick to take one for the team and just let everybody else get back to normal.
I have to stay off social media right now. I shared a news article about this, and about some things that appear to be topics of discussion among our leadership in Washington, DC that suggest this is starting to get some traction. A friend of mine suggested my purpose for sharing that particular post was "hatred". In that I have a disdain for such ideas, I suppose he may have had a point. In one point of our brief conversation, he told me I was being "played". My response was, "One of us is being played. It ain't me."
To the hatred comment I replied that first, it was a hoax. Then it not a big deal. Then it was under control. Then it was H1N1 was worse, but then math happened, and that turned out to not be right, either. Then I told him this. Yup. One of us is being played.....
Who's playing you?
My mom hasn't seen news. She's not understood the gravity of just how serious this is, except from what she's seen on social media. She yelled at me when I told her to quit watching Fox News that she has absolutely no access to stuff like that. I forgot she doesn't have cable and her condo is situated such that an indoor tv antenna doesn't work. She has netflix. I told her to download a streaming app for her phone.
My mom wants to help. God bless her for that. But I told her the best way she could was to STAY HOME. She's 76. She doesn't need to go get a job at WalMart and then become a victim. If she stays home and stays healthy, she's helping by not becoming someone who will require medical treatment. I further had to explain to her that I can't just move in with her because I still get to go to work. (It's a blessing, but I'd rather be home right now). I'm out in this and sooner than later, someone in our organization is going to get this. I don't need to carry it home to my moms.
So I'm limiting the things I do to minimize my exposure to others. I'm using the self check out at the store (which I do anyway because I'm impatient). I'm putting off a trip to the post office until Monday because I have to send some mail return receipt requested. I wiped off the handle at the gas pump and actually avoided going to a store that I would have had to pull the handle on the door of when I was in need of some newspaper to wrap some glassware. I'm not a germophobe. In fact, I've always been of the impression that a little germs were good for you so you had antibodies to them. This thing will flat kill you. Don't be stupid about it.
And yet, people are, and we're finally going to get to the meat and potatoes of the two words I opened with. Mission essential.
Who's mission essential in your mind?
I worship with mostly elderly people on Sunday. They're pretty mission essential to me because they're doing a lot for our community. They have more time than I do, and they're putting it to use! I wouldn't help them right now for nothing because my job is mission essential to our country. I have to go to work with other mission essential people. Their mission essential job is sharing food with people who desperately need it. In whose eyes is what I do more important than theirs?
Are you mission essential? The Lt. Governor of Texas thinks not. Others think that it's an acceptable risk to lose 3% of the population so they can get busy with their lives again. 3% of the American population is somewhere around 6.6 million people, by the way. And define mission essential. I think what I do is important, but am I more important than the guy that picks the strawberries? Or what about the people who have to endure insults because they're not letting you have more than one toilet paper package? The folks at the grocery stores seem pretty mission essential to me right now.
And they're so often the ones we take for granted. That it's not an important job and it's OK to mistreat them because YOU didn't get what YOU wanted, the way YOU wanted it, instead of just being grateful you had the chance to even get it at all.
I wonder, who exactly, is expendable in the eyes of people like the aforementioned Lt. Governor. The poor? The homeless? The elderly, sick, or disabled?
For my answer, I looked to Jesus. I don't think He thinks even one is. He healed the sick, touched lepers, ate with sinners. Each to Him was valuable. Each to Him was worth the sacrifice. Each was, and is precious. And yet, how many multitudes turn their back on the One they need the most?
It shouldn't be this way, but we live in a fallen world. And when our elected officials start devaluing human beings, it's time to replace them with people that don't. I don't care what political party they belong to.
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