Yesterday I had an asthma attack while wearing the mask. No, it wasn’t the mask who gave it to me. It was the fact that I’ve been having asthma attacks for the past week due to dust, pollen, and bad air quality. Which definitely has made life interesting in the fact that I’ve had to wear a mask for most of the week due to work.

And yesterday at church, while working the livestream, I had another one.

I was able to at least go into the other room and take my mask off to take my inhaler, but I couldn’t stay in there for long because I had a responsibility. And I had to have my mask on.

Luckily, it wasn’t a terrible asthma attack today. I’ve had a couple at work, where I also can’t take my mask off, and they have been worse.

BUT, It did make me think. I could definitely breathe better with my mask off. But I didn’t have the ability to keep it off for long because I had a job to do. The same goes for when I’m at work and suddenly can’t breathe, not due to the mask, but due to the fact that my lungs aren’t perfect and like to suddenly give out on me.

I’m fine. It wasn’t terrible. But, it also happened and wearing a mask didn’t make it worse. (Necessarily…it was a bit easier to breathe with the mask off, but that’s why I went into the other room for a minute to try to regulate my breathing again).

The mask didn’t make it so I couldn’t breathe at all.

I’m not saying this for everyone who has asthma attacks, and I know that some people have way worse asthma than I do, but I will say:

Sometimes there are people who are working who can’t take off their masks and suddenly they can’t breathe. But they are wearing it for you. They are wearing them because they have to work and work requires it.

They are wearing them for hours…and hours at a time….

And yet, the amount of people I see complain over having to wear them for 20 minutes to grab something from the grocery store. One of my friends works at a local restaurant and she told me a store about a man who refused to wear a mask for one minute, while walking to his table because he claimed he had “asthma” and couldn’t wear them. It was for one minute.

I know that wearing a mask is uncomfortable. I know that sometimes you can’t breathe well in them. And I know that when you already have a lung condition and you have to wear a mask, it makes it worse sometimes.

But here’s the thing: I would much rather wear a mask and have to step away for a minute to take an inhaler, than not wear a mask, and get so sick that I can’t breathe for months…with or without a mask.

Wearing a mask is a sacrifice. Not just for you, but for other people too. I know that some people believe that this is just the government trying to tell you what to do, but here’s the thing: for right now: it helps. Doctors and nurses are also telling us this, not just the government. And they are the ones who know what’s up.

It’s uncomfortable. It’s hard to breathe.

Here’s a tip: Find a looser fitting mask to wear if it’s harder for you to breathe. And don’t take it off to talk to someone. Enunciate. We can hear you just fine.

Together we can do this. If I can wear a mask for 6 straight hours at work, WHILE talking to customers and WHILE working register, then you can wear it for 20 minutes to grab 3 things from a grocery store.

Wash your hands. Cover you Cough. Don’t go out when you are sick.

And Wear a Mask. It’s not that big of a sacrifice. It’s relatively small in the scheme of things. But, if everyone makes that small sacrifice, even for one minute of their day outside, then in the whole scheme of things, it will be a big sacrifice.

For now, the world is still hurting. For now, it needs our help.

In every story ever written there is a call to action. Even in the Bible. Jesus’s call to action is to “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

Our call to action in the story of our lives, in this historic time we are living in is this: Protect your fellow humans. Protect your loved ones. Make the small sacrifice that may just make the bigger difference. The call to action in a story is one of the most important parts. It is the catalyst that sets everything in motion, for good or ill. It is the catalyst to make things better. It may not be better right away. It might take some time. And usually you have to go through the lowest point, the “dark night of the soul” before you see the light at the end of the tunnel and things start looking up. Together, let’s make the “dark night of the soul” less so, and let’s skip ahead to the ending.

This isn’t going to last forever. If history has taught us anything it’s that it is always changing. The story doesn’t stay stagnant. In history we have had all sorts of diseases that spring up and then go away after awhile. We don’t still have smallpox or much of the bubonic plague anymore.

If we can band together and work as a team in the great story to work towards the climax and end of the story, then together, we may just be able to kick this and make 2021 a much better year.

Our call to arms, our small sacrifice to make for our fellow humans, is to wear a mask. For just a little while.

It won’t be forever.