May 6, 2021

May 6, 2021

I got each of my Covid-19 vaccinations three weeks apart at the Mass Vaccination Site down at 6-Flags and I remember something in common with those experiences. In spite of long hours and long lines, the nurses giving both shots were ecstatic---joyful as they put the needle in my arm. It turns out my experience is not unusual.

In an article in the Washington Post last month, Maura Judkis writes:
“The happiest place in medicine right now is a basketball arena in New Mexico. Or maybe it’s the parking lot of a baseball stadium in Los Angeles, or a shopping mall in South Dakota. The happiest place in medicine is anywhere there is vaccine, and the happiest people in medicine are the ones plunging it into the arms of strangers.

‘It’s a joy to all of us,’ says Nana Poku, a nurse vaccinating people in Northern Virginia.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever had an experience in my career that has felt so promising and so fulfilling,’ says Christina O’Connell, at the University of New Mexico.

For health-care workers, the opportunity to administer the vaccine has become its own reward. Giving hope to others has given them hope, too. In some clinics, so many nurses have volunteered for vaccine duty that they can’t accommodate them all. The arrival of ‘The Shot’ has transformed the grim pop-up clinics of the pandemic into gratitude factories—assembly lines where Americans could begin to put back together their busted psyches.

Pharmacy manager Ebram Botros said, ‘I will never forget the face of the first person I vaccinated. It was an 80-year-old man who said that he hadn’t seen his children or grandchildren since last-March.’

Corie Robinson, a nurse in D.C., was selected to give the ceremonial first vaccinations on camera at a Dec. 17 news conference. The positivity has buoyed her spirits. She said of her patients, ‘You can see their smiles through their masks.’ One elderly man sang while he got his shot. Others request pamphlets about the vaccine because they want to put them in time capsules.”

I understand the joy of these health workers because it always FEELS good to DO good.

Of course, as Christians we have been commissioned to share the BEST good thing ever: the message of the Gospel. It doesn’t just keep us out of the hospital, it gives all of life abundance. It doesn’t just stave off a virus, it defeats death itself.

And remember, The Cure we are commissioned to share works on EVERYONE and there are NO side effects. As it says in Romans 10:1, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” No wonder Paul adds, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the GOOD NEWS!” (Romans 10:15)

Keep the SON in your eyes!
Mark