Practicing a Freedom Fundamental to My First Bill of Rights

I parked my car and watched for a bit. Reluctantly I put my mask on. I never liked using it even when I was painting and needed it. I liked it less when I wasn’t sure it really did much good. Slowly I wandered across the lot and claimed my six feet. It did feel a lot like death. A nicely dressed couple older than me got in line behind me. No masks. He disappears and after a bit I notice him coming across the parking lot clutching masks. They were reluctant too. We would have to go by the counters and the mask police to get in. The line advanced.

I looked out to some distant mountains and up toward the clouds and warm sunshine. I was already feeling uncomfortable, no irritated, no an edge of anger. The last weeks when the numbers were higher, no masks were needed. We handled social distancing on our own. And now two days late and a dollar short mandatory masks? I decided I better practice my religious freedom right then and there in the rather resigned waiting line. Now your first thought might be, “You left the line and went to church?” Why would you think that? Is it because our culture has conditioned us to think church is the gathering place? No our first amendment is broader and deeper than that. No I lifted my eyes to the distant shadowy mountains and considered who I was and where I was. I began to consider what the fictitious character Father Tim in the Mittford series by Jan Karon, would call the prayer that never fails. The line advanced.

My father who is not dead but present in the heavens, your name is hallowed. The impact and worth of that is so far above valuing my frustration and speaking out of that emotion. Your character/name speaks power to my heart. In the midst of “governmental control” my place in the kingdom come, your will be done not in abstract religiosity but in your will flowing down to me and out through me. I began to think of the weary lady leaning on the cart before me and the quietly resigned gentle couple behind me. I began to want the will/presence of my Father to be done in my spirit on this little piece of sidewalk. I was there to get some daily bread, true but its availability was now a matter of interest but not of disgust if it were not present. I am of the forgiven. My advocate and intercessor was present in line with me through the person of the Holy Spirit. And in those moments of worship my own spirit began to change with peace and presence of my own that would come to make a difference in the way I regarded those around me. The line advanced.

I was being gently led past the temptation to kill the peace and purpose of being a child of king. The fruit of the tree of knowledge good and evil led me to be aware of the faulty distribution of safety, the misuse of information not for good but for manipulation, some untrustworthy leaders led to distrust of all leaders dealing with human reaction to the unknown. I was being tempted to go down a rabbit hole. I was nearing the entrance. My heart was being freed from the one who was saying, “What of your rights? What of your freedom? What of fairness?” Not today. Not today, evil one. And the line advanced.

I thought about the benefit of social distancing. I wouldn’t have need of as much deodorant and therefore would save money! And I thought of the disappointment of the day. Unlike many of the long lines I stood in, at the end there would be no ride or entertainment venue. Now I was past the counter and the masker. I got my cart and wiped down the handle as my wife said I should. It felt like the first time I bought eggs after getting married. I went to the store full of new importance. As I approached the eggs I saw a lady picking up her eggs and turning them slightly. Wanting to stay in good graces with my new wife, I opened the lid and turned the eggs for some reason. Nothing. So a bit desperate I turned to the lady and asked, “Why are we turning the eggs?” After laughing she said, “To make sure they weren’t cracked!” Oh.  After being in the store a little while I crossed paths with the couple who had been in line behind me. Since we were in the personal products area, I shared my observations about deodorant and the end of the line. Amidst the laughter we soldiered on a bit lighter. And the line advanced.

Augustine wrote when “force is applied, the will is not aroused. One can enter the Church unwillingly, one can approach the altar unwillingly, one can receive the sacrament unwillingly; no one can believe except willingly.” It is incredible how faith misdirected can take you all kinds of places, even to the evil ones delight. But to fix your eyes on Jesus, set him as the navigational point in your everyday ordinary running around life, there is religious freedom. 

So yesterday at Walmart I practiced my religious freedom in a broad and most powerful sense. I trusted the Lord with all my heart, soul mind and strength. If it be possible let the pandemic pass, “yet not as I will, but as you will.” And the line moved…