Morning thoughts:
I was in a certain supermarket in a certain area, and I noticed the number of people who walked against the arrow, and looked as if they dared anyone to tell them about it. 

I made mention of it to a woman whom I happen to know who works in the seafood section. She said, “You can’t imagine how hard it is for us to get them to put that mask on.”


At the checkout counter, I was aware of an unmasked young man standing close enough to me that an observer might have thought he was my grandson.  Mainly because he was not my grandson, and I wanted to handle my business privately, I thought I would be a little creative, so I whirled around and sang to him, “Give me 6 feet Baby, 🎶 Gimme feet please.🎶”

He assumed a typical teenage attitude, and rolled his eyes as if I were the problem. It took a couple of choruses before he finally yielded to my request. 

It seems to me that people really have a problem with being “told what to do.” I do remember when I was teaching school, telling my kids that the more you resent somebody telling you what to do, the more that will be your experience in life. 

Then the thought occurred to me that, that could be why people have such a difficult time with how they view Christianity…as a bunch of “do’s” and “don’t’s” vs. a relationship with a living God that loves them to “wholeness” and wants them to have abundant life.  They do want a “savior” but don’t want a “lord.” 

So many have a problem with the notion of “submission,” and I get it. The reason is largely because of abusive authority in some families, work places, and even in some church settings the definition of the word, “submission” has been perverted to imply a dominant/subservient relationship. In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve the same marching orders, “ multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue IT not to subdue one another. It was never God’s desire that one of them should be diminished. 

Just as the arrows and mask requirements have been put in place for our health, peace and safety, we would do well to learn to trust that God’s plan for submission and authority, especially to His designated leaders, even when we don’t like it, is the safest place for us to be.  

But as the psalmist Bob Dylan once sang, “It might be the devil or it might be the Lord, but you’ve gotta serve somebody.” #theyneedarealGod

Written by Toni Turner

Founder of GRACISM task force & True View Ministries Board Member