Pray for the President? Yes, really.

I awoke very early this morning to the news that the current President of the United States and his wife have contracted COVID. 

As a human being in North America, I would be lying if I said that my first thoughts were of the president’s health and well being. 

Instead, my first thoughts were that this was political.  One month away from a potentially historic election and suddenly the man who said months ago that the election may have to be postponed is sick and unable to campaign.  This comes a day after a poll showed him as much as 13 points behind his challenger.

I also thought about the man and his followers.  He could claim illness but that he fought through it because he was stronger than the 200,000 Americans who have died from this and this is why he should be re-elected.  Because this disease “affects virtually nobody” except the elderly with heart problems, he can claim strength by overcoming.

As a Canadian watchng from the outside, it seemed like this might just be today's episode of America: The Series.  

These thoughts ran through my mind before I thought of the man.  Before I thought of his wife or his family.  My mind immediately went to how does this play out and what’s the story going to be.

With a couple hours of reflection, my mind is finally going in a different direction.

Regardless of where I stand on the policy and actions of the man, I would not wish this on him or his family.  Thankfully I’ve never had to experience it but from what I know of ventilators, it’s not something I would wish on anyone.  In addition to that, the long term effects on survivors are not known at all so who knows what will happen.

My mind has also shifted to the staff and the people around the president.  How many have been exposed and how many more positive tests are coming?  It has shifted to the human beings themselves who are now faced with something that over 7 million Americans have had to face; a positive COVID test and the steps to follow.

Today the right will be spouting strength while the left will be spouting that he had this coming and you get what you give in this world.

Today is not a day to revel in illness.  Today is a day to pray for the president, his wife and those close to them.  Pray that the president may recover from this illness but also that it may open his eyes to understand more.  To understand he is not invincible and to understand that this can affect everyone.  To understand his rhetoric and policies around this illness have caused fear and pain for the past 6 months .

Jesus never said, “love your neighbour” because it would be easy; I believe he specifically meant for us to do it when it was hard.  Loving the president today will not be easy, but I believe it is what we're called to do.