There is no doubt this time in America is a stressful time. Our whole way of life had been turned upside down. Our basic way of life—to go where we want, when we want, and how we want has been seriously abridged.
I also feel we are seeing the limits of our personal, familial, and social discipline. That is, we have little compassion for doing what is best for others if it intrudes into our routine, or privilege, or rights.
On the way home from taking some food out to a family we went to church with in Livingston because all were down with covid(four in the family) we talked about how we are handling the overall changes.
I expressed to Anna I had developed a routine that was really working well for me before COVID because I was doing a lot of exercising three times a week, deepening relationships at our new church home, working with veterans which I care deeply about, and then everything ground to a halt. Anna moved home and continued to work from home since that time. I am not sure I would not go crazy in that little room from which she is operating. But, she does get to come out for lunch and we sit outside (always good therapy) even in the heat.
I, on the other hand have had to put off most of the veterans who were referred to me because they either do not have the computer or smart phone to do therapy through a portal, or they are not good candidates for that kind of therapy at this time. Some have serious underlying conditions. So we are treading water.
Last night I went up to the church because it was praise team rehearsal and I understood I was supposed to be there. Not that anyone in their right mind would push me out in front of a group of people with a microphone in my hand gyrating to the beat of the music. I am sorry, you probably can't unread that or un-visualize that in your mind.
Apparently, Cityview is going to attempt to reopen to a small group of people Sunday morning for one service. I am to run one of the cameras. However, it was really a joy to be in the room Thursday evening. Truthfully, it is the most folks I have been in the room with in the last couple of months. So that was good. There is an atmosphere which pervades even the practice of learning music and songs, and preparing for worship. I keep going back to the pope who said he was more afraid of Luther's hymns than of his sermons.
What I do know is that we will move through this and hopefully, we will move through this together and perhaps even more determined to take the time to develop community and be inclusive to all those for whom Christ has died. Perhaps the church will learn that worship is a privilege previously unappreciated in our culture because it largely costs us nothing. We can take or leave it, until it is gone for a long stretch of time. While everything churches are doing in the meantime are good, it still ends up like “kissing your sister.” It never really takes the place of together, hearts in worship voices in praise, ears eager to hear and learn.
Perhaps from this season of limited activity, we can see the world, our neighbor differently. Perhaps we can learn new lessons of acceptance and community. Perhaps we can be more vocal with our gratitude and less vocal about the inconveniences. Perhaps we can learn the “magic” of gratitude and saying it out loud. Perhaps we can find ways to actually help our neighbor and even enjoy the expansiveness of Jesus's view of “my brother.”
Perhaps when the next generation comes on the scene, they can observe the camaraderie, the compassion, the solidarity of this time and note it was forged in the midst of COVID. Perhaps they will notice like our parents and grandparents who developed resiliency from the depression and two world wars, we too became better, more “other centered,” and kind than previous to this world wide epidemic. Perhaps the long term effects of this virus may humanize those we have found so easy to demonize; to give grace to those who previously merited our judgment, to love those who were never included in the tight circle of those we cared deeply about.
COVID is not about just a virus. It never has been just a virus. It is an object lesson staring us in the face day in and day out. Either we work together toward the common goal of eradicating this virus and taming its spread, or people we love and care about, people we respect and look up to, people who have been our neighbors for more years than we can count, people whose greatness has touched our own in the classroom and life, people who have been like giants among us will die because, we were unwilling, unable, uncaring enough, to think of the life of others before the convenience to ourselves.
Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap, and be kind.
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