I stopped at WaWa today on my way home from taking my son to
his mother’s house last night – yes, I know, social distancing and everything and
I take it seriously, but I needed to pick up two things. Anyway, I was standing
at the counter and I started talking with the guy working there – I just asked
him how he was doing and he simply said “doing the best we can, that’s all you
can do”. The guy sounded really tired. I said, “I hear you, this is tough man,
but I really appreciate what you do”, and he said “thanks, it’s tough but we’ll
get through it all eventually”. He’s right, we will.
You can find inspiration in all kinds of places and in all
kinds of people. We pay tons of attention and heap tons of praise on sports
figures, movie stars, and tv stars. We admire the famous and those who seem “larger
than life”. I find inspiration these days in the people who are doing their
jobs, in the midst of this dangerous time, and serving the community. The
caregivers, the doctors, nurses, orderlies, and everyone who works in health
care. The first responders, the police, the firefighters, the EMT’s. The grocery
store workers and clerks. The nursing home and retirement community workers
providing meals and cleaning. There are so many people that, on a normal day,
we might pay no mind to but who provide so much to our daily lives, to our
communities – they are an inspiration, they are heroes, they are gifts from
God.
To all those who are helping, serving, risking their health
to help keep life going – THANK YOU. You are an inspiration. You are a gift
from God. You are a hero. Thank you for what you do, thank you for who you are,
thank you. We are one body with many members – to those members that are so
often overlooked or taken for granted – thank you, we would not be whole
without you.
Let us pray. Gracious God we give you thanks for all those
who are working now, providing needed services for our communities, helping
those in need. We lift before you all those who are unable to work during this
crisis and we ask that you inspire our people to remain safe so that this virus
might stop spreading and we ask that you inspire our leaders to do everything
in their ability to support those in need. This is a difficult time dear Lord
and we simply ask you to be there for us all – through those who give all they
can to sustain our community, to all those in need, and to everyone in between.
Amen.
