FIGHTING EBOLA OR HIDING FROM IT?
Richard Vicknair
We need to pray passionately for God’s intervention in the Ebola crisis, but we also need to pray for our own nation. And not just that we would be saved from the virus; we need to pray that we, who have the means, would be willing to go and fight the virus. The current attitude among the majority of Americans regarding Ebola is “prohibit anyone from coming into America from West Africa.” Now that would be O.K. if followed by something like “Then we should recruit thousands of volunteers to go to West Africa and fight this thing”. I heard yesterday that the World Health Organization is predicting that “within a few months we will be seeing 10,000 cases per month. Unless we fight this thing it will creep through Africa, Asia and Europe and eventually America.
I was blessed to hear one Presidential hopeful say “The first thing I would do, is recruit and send thousands of volunteer medical professionals to West Africa to fight this thing at the source.” He went on to say that “If we don’t’ fight this at the source it will eventually arrive here with power.” It touched me deeply that he would think first of the lives of others who do not have the means to fight this on their own. I’m sure he will be criticized because some of those volunteers will certainly contract the disease and some of them might even bring it home.
The American medical association says that there are thousands of people ready to go and fight this disease, but they are prohibited from going by our own government because we are afraid that they will bring the disease to our shores.
It comforts me to no end to know that there are people who are still willing to put themselves in harms way and even die to save the lives of others. Isn’t that what it means to follow Christ; “Who for the joy before Him endured the cross, despising its shame and is now seated at the right hand of God”. Let’s admire those who would rather die trying to save others than to spend their whole lives protecting themselves. “He who would save his life will lose it, but he who would lose his life will find it”.