How to protect yourself from getting the flu:
1. Wash your hands well and engage in other healthy habits.
2. Get the vaccine.
3. Pray for protection.
When you read these, what thoughts come to your mind?
a. Why didn't I think to pray? Shouldn't prayer be first on the list?
b. Why would we need to get the vaccine if we have prayer: don't we trust God and have faith?
c. Prayer is a waste of time for religious fanatics; we should just get real and do the practical things.
d. These doctors and religious people are all trying to deceive us and make money; don't do any of it!
Here is what I think:
a. Prayer should be first; God is our ultimate protection. Science and experience have shown time and again that prayer is medically helpful.
b. We should never think that prayer and medicine or prayer and practical wisdom are opposed to one another. God protects us through vaccines and through hand washing. For example, praying for safety and driving while drunk is just stupid and presumptuous. Another way to say it is, "both/and" rather than "either/or".
May God divinely protect you through your wise living, our wonderful medical community and through miraculous intervention.
Shalom
