Flu shot season is here once more. It seems as though you can flu shots every where -- your local pharmacy, Walmart, your grocery store, your fire station, and maybe even your family doctor's office.
When it comes to flu shots, people fall into two camps. One side believes that they cause illness: "Dr. Waldron, I've never been so sick as I was after you gave me that flu shot last year! I'll never get another one!" The other side believes that flu shots saved them from certain death: "I got the flu shot last year and I don't think I even had one cold."
The reality is that neither camp is right.
I get vaccinated for influenza every year and I usually do get a couple of colds. I have even had a couple of stomach viruses as well. By God's grace, I haven't had influenza.
Influenza is an illness in which people run high fevers, get muscle aches all over, and usually have a dry cough. It lasts two to three days and then usually goes away, leaving its victims pretty weak, but still alive. This is the only illness that flu shot prevents.
There are a lot of other illnesses out there.
Everyone puts their trust in something. For those who don't trust vaccines, there is something else that they do trust. Hand washing, antibacterial scrubs, probiotics, Plexus, or maybe Essential Oils. These are things they rely on to prevent and sometimes treat the illnesses they fear.
Flu shots are certainly not perfect -- they are made by very smart, but also fallible humans. They are at best a limited tool in a world full of deadly viruses and bacteria. But then again, so are all of these other things in which people are putting their trust.
On the other hand, there is One who is worthy of trust, who is neither fallible, nor limited. There is no virus or bacteria that He does not understand and cannot heal.
I would trust God, even as I get my flu shot. He's a lot more trustworthy than anything that humans can come up with.
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