The Blue Church

Unsolicited advice abounds today. We have COVIDOVERLOAD!

We know to keep our distance, wear a mask, and stay home.
We know to wash our hands, use sanitizer, and wipe down surfaces.
We know to shelter in place, not touch our face, and order takeout.

When our two sons were ever-present back seat passengers, we did our best to keep them occupied. The alternative was the endlessly repeated question above.

Looking back on those pre-video days, I realize that we used one of two methods. The first was distraction, pure and simple. Play this game, work this puzzle, focus on this toy, and later, read this book.

There are two ways to travel, two different types of traveler.

One says, “Let’s just get there.” My dad was an expert on that method. It’s a simple, no-nonsense approach that works well: We get in the car, and get out when we get there. Period. We’ll eat when we get there, sleep when we get there, and we stop only out of (extreme) biological necessity or if a policeman insists.

We are good at many things, but we are not good at waiting.
We think waiting is wasting time, a non-productive time.
We think waiting is being lazy, the opposite of working.
We think waiting is what we do while nothing is getting done.
We think waiting is, at best, annoying and inconvenient.

Tomorrow we will again gather online. Does that sound awkward? How can we gather if we are apart? How can people “get together” while “social distancing”? 

Turns out, it’s not as strange as it sounds, because of God’s Spirit. Long before Pentecost and the official “coming of the Spirit” predicted by Jesus in The Upper Room, David (Psalm 139) sang these words to the Lord:

“Strange,” “Zombie,” “Twilight Zone,” “Bizarre” are words we hear often today. Clearly, most of us are experiencing things we’ve never seen before. Empty streets, shortages of common supplies, and closed businesses leave our neighborhoods with a “ghost town” feel, don’t they?