Loving Your Neighbor by Wearing a Face Mask

This week is the first week here in Sydney that we are recommended to wear a face mask when entering stores and other indoor spaces. I know, I know, we are a bit behind the rest of the world with this, so the processing through wearing a face mask is not new to most people, but it is to me.

With the recommendation for everyone to start wearing masks, I got out my sewing machine and whipped up some masks for my family and a few friends. They were cute, colorful, and easy to make- I was keen to follow the recommendations and knew that by doing so, I was loving my community and neighbors around me.

But as I got to the store last night and pulled my colorful face mask out of my bag, there were a whole lot of emotions and thoughts going through my mind. It felt weird on my face. There weren’t very many people wearing them yet- is everyone staring at me? It really was harder to breathe in them than I thought it would be. Can the lady at the meat counter hear me? Am I scaring the kid that is staring at me? I wish I could smile at people- it’s my favorite to interact with people while shopping, but feels awkward to do so like this. Do I just look mad behind this mask? Maybe I should just take it off because I feel self conscious and it really is uncomfortable.

As these thoughts and emotions rolled through my mind, I had to continually preach the truth of Mark 12:31 to myself: “Love your neighbor as yourself…love your neighbor as yourself.”

Over and over as I grabbed my groceries, I had to continue to tell this truth to myself because I know that wearing a face mask is one very practical way that I can be loving my neighbor above myself in this crazy season of a pandemic across the globe.

Loving Your Neighbor Above Yourself

Often, loving our neighbor above ourself takes sacrifice and discomfort (And really, compared to many across the globe, this is a tiny, little sacrifice of discomfort I’m having to make!). As I walked the isles, I was drawn to think of how Jesus loved us above Himself and sacrificed His own comforts for our sake. Philippians 2:3-11 came to mind:

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The kids and I have recently memorized this passage of scripture and we have been talking about what it looks like to count others more significant than ourselves and to look to the interests of others before our own. We have discussed this passage extensively as we look at Jesus as our greatest example of putting His own comforts and interests aside in order to humble Himself by coming to earth as a man and dying an awful death on a cross.

Jesus As Our Example…

He left the comforts of Heaven to become a man.

He set aside His own power as God to humble Himself as a servant.

He took a punishment that He didn’t deserve, an awful, excruciating death, in order to love others above Himself.

He sought out our best interests by taking on the wrath of God for us so that we don’t have to bear this penalty for our sin.

Although He IS God, He humbled Himself for the sake of the love, grace, and mercy of God to be manifest and offered to us through Him.

So, as I’m walking through the grocery store, my mind is thinking on these truths, and I asked myself these questions:

Am I having the mind of Christ in this situation? Am I willing to humble myself in order to count others more significant than myself? Am I willing to sacrifice my own comforts for the sake of loving my neighbor, community, and world?

As much as I don’t like wearing masks, it is my role as a Christian to reflect Christ to the world around me, and this is one way I can do that. I can put aside my own comforts, and humble myself for the sake of others. I can forget the freedoms I think I should have, and instead, because of my freedom in Christ, live out of this freedom by loving others above myself. This is the true freedom that the gospel brings. This is a life that reflects Christ’s humble love to the world through my actions. And this is the kind of life-transforming gospel I want to preach through my words and actions to my children, those I’m discipling, my neighbors, and the world around me.

This is the power of the gospel at work in our everyday lives as we seek to set aside our own freedom and comforts for the sake of others, just like Christ has done for us.

So, each time I take out my face mask, my prayer is that my heart would remember the greatest commandments Jesus gave to us:

“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-38

Looking for more gospel encouragements related to this pandemic? Check out these posts:
Biblical Truths to Dwell on in a Pandemic
Biblical Resources for Time in Isolation
Navigating the “New Normal”
Loving Your Neighbor by Wearing a Face Mask