It all sounds muffled thorugh this swine flu mask!

New month, new day, and we wake from visions of swine flu germs dancing here, there, and everywhere, on this Thursday, first day of October, 2009. It's not a threat that we should take lightly. I have been talking here at the company for several weeks about being prepared for a flu outbreak. Most think me to be an alarmist but my old ‘Be Prepared’ Scout days along with my planning background tells me to think about potential impacts ahead of time, not during, or after. I do know that some of the concerns about a flu epidemic are driven by the way in which news is being reported. However, when we see a neighboring school district shut down with nearly 1,000 absentees, and we begin getting emails from our local Church warning parents about children who have been diagnosed, and doctors being interviewed say they are seeing thirty to forty children a day who have flu symptoms, well, okay, call me what you want to, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to at least see the potential for issues down the road.

The Bible tells us that the successful rancher better know the status of his fields and his herds. (See Proverbs 27:23.) It also speaks often in agricultural terms about the preparatory work required if a harvest is to be brought forth in due time. (See Proverbs 20:4.) Realistically, with the flu season developing like it is, it becomes a when, not an ‘if’situation that we will have to eventually deal with. My youngest son was saying how horrible it is for people to send their children to school when they are sick and when they do they risk spreading it to the other kids. I told him that while he might be blessed to have someone to take care of his kids, not everyone is in that situation. While it is a bad choice to send a sick child to school, think about the single mom who must work and has very few resources to fall back on. Truth is, most of our children will likely end up being exposed and we should plan around that scenario. This is not a doomsday outlook, it is a stop, look, listen, and learn approach.

Tuesday evening on my way home from the inner city Bible club meeting I heard a preacher on the radio speaking about how Nehemiah approached dealing with threats to the safety and well being of his people. He spoke of that incident where they were working on rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem and they made their prayers to God and then they worked with a shovel in one hand and a spear or sword in the other. (See Nehemiah Chapter four.) We all know we are not immune from the ills that plague our world. We pray, we trust God, and then we get busy doing our part to deal with the challenges as they come. Someone might say they will just trust God to protect them from the flu and not give it a second thought. I think I will pray, seek God’s help, and also make sure I wash my hands, cover my cough, and do my best to protect myself and others. That’s good advice even if it did come from a somewhat suspect source, that being, of course, yours truly. Until next time may God bless each one. Amen. …More later.