There is a time and a place for face masks, but some people haven’t figured out that place.

… It’s crazy that I just wrote that sentence! Three months ago I would never have thought about writing about face masks.

But now, in the midst of COVID, face masks are even becoming fashionable. A whole cottage industry is rising up, making these accessories that used to be set aside for kids pretending to be cowboys or for biker gangs.

I know those masks look a little different, but apparently I may have to dig out a bandit scarf from our kids’ old tickle trunk if I want to go to Costco.

There have been times when I have worn a face mask and a couple of times when I wore a goalie mask. When I was doing some home construction I wore one because of all the dust and debris.  

There is a time and a place for face masks, but the other day I saw a whole lot of wrong places for these facial protective devices.

We were traveling from Kingston to Toronto on the highway, where we saw several people driving – some probably for hundreds of kilometres – wearing a mask … wait for it … ALONE in their vehicles! 

That’s right, they were protecting themselves from themselves.

It’s possible they had the coronavirus and they were making sure that they didn’t give it to themselves again. Maybe they thought they needed to filter the air that was circulating through the car, which happened to be the same air they were breathing into the car’s ventilation system.

I figure that wearing a mask for a long trip would get all hot and sweaty. They were probably incubating a new form of the virus or the next virus that will send us into a second wave of the pandemic. As soon as they open their car door at a gas station, the virus will be unlocked and spread to all those unsuspecting people innocently pumping gas into their tanks. 

Or that guy who was driving a van wearing a mask, can you imagine how many germs he would release into the atmosphere after being stored up for a few hours in that rolling container?

Now I’m not saying that people should not be wearing face masks. They’re fine if you are in a crowded area, or if you want to protect others. 

The bottom line is a face mask is appropriate when other people are around. 

If you are walking alone through a park – wait, can we do that yet? – you don’t need a mask.

If you’re outside suntanning in your backyard by yourself, you don’t need to wear a mask. But if you do, afterwards you’ll look like you have a permanent mask on your face.

During this time, there is a place for wearing a face mask. You just have to pick the right place to wear it. 

Here’s the thing: There is a time and a place for everything. But in this age of COVID, the time and place for things can become muddled. We can find ourselves doing things that we wouldn’t normally do during this time or place. For instance, with not having to get ready and go to church on Sundays, it would be easy to fill that time with something else. So, during this pandemic, make sure you keep a time and place for meeting with God and your church family.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How has your church experience been during the last couple of months? Leave your comments and questions below, and subscribe to have these posts delivered to your inbox.