Day: August 5, 2020

answers, corona, covid19, Encouragement, God, Life, Love, People, promises, searching, seasons, Uncategorized, Writing

I Want To Go To Church….

dana2day

It’s true, I want to go to church.  Not the new social distanced, CDC guidelines church.  I want to go and sit among my people, singing worship songs that stir the heart to lift my eyes to the heavens, hands raised, the Spirit moving in and around all who are there, worshipping the Almighty God.  I want to feel the love from people I’ve known for years.  People who have walked with us in this journey with God.  People who I’ve knelt at the altar with, hands clasped together, tears dropping on the carpeted steps as we pray together over heart issues, brokenness, sickness or just for a fresh touch from the Savior.  I want to sit and listen to the pastor, called by God, share the Word and the message God has given him for us.  I want to mingle with my people, hugging them, holding hands, touching faces, smiling and laughing and just generally enjoying a warm fuzzy from all the love!  It’s been five months since I have sat with these people.  We’ve all tried to stay connected, but it has been more difficult than we anticipated.  Heck, harder than we could have imagined, because we never would have imagined this forced isolation.

Last Sunday, I went to church with my daughter and her husband.  They attend another church that has been having in person services for weeks.  They had a staff member that had Covid19, but it was contained and he had not been around any other staff and he quarantined for the two weeks.   Anyway, as I entered, staff and volunteers wore masks, but people were happy and talking and laughing.  We were directed to a row of chairs that were social distanced, as directed by the CDC guidelines.  People removed their mask as they settled into their seats. When the music began to worship.  It was so sweet and genuine and heartfelt.  This wasn’t my church, but these people were still my people.  They longed for gathering together, just like me.  They needed this corporate worship, just like me.  They needed to sit among their people, just like me.  Suddenly, the craziness of the outside world began to slip away.  At first, I truly struggled to sing out.  I was trying to soak it all in.  It was almost difficult to relax and really allow myself to worship.  I closed my eyes and allowed my other senses to absorb it all.  And then it happened, I sang out!  The wall around me collapsed.  The cloud of frustration, of anxiousness, of the continuous onslaught of media, it all slipped away.  I found myself smiling for no apparent reason.  Soon the pastor stood before us and shared the Word.  I was still smiling during the entire sermon.  I’m sure I looked ridiculous, but I truly did not care.  I was sitting among my people.  I only knew about eight people in the room, five of which were my family, but I was with my people.  People who are believers.  People who put their faith in God.  People who are family because of their faith.  People who, just like me, need to gather together and worship.  I was still smiling when we left.  I hugged my daughter and her husband and headed home…..still smiling. I was so happy.  I felt like I could breath.

I believe that many of us feel like this.  Like we are holding our breath.  No way did we ever imagine the first time we heard Coronavirus or Covid19, that our churches would be closed down for five months and counting.  aWe has no clue that we did would be controlled by outside sources telling us how we could do church.  That a virus would create such a sense of fear, we would willingly back away from meeting together, from hugging, from standing any closer than six feet to each other. Five months.  Can you even wrap your head around that for just a moment.  During these five months we’ve seen through our tv, computer or phone screens, things happening across our nation that have just piled on the fear.  Racial unrest, rioting, protesting, looting, violence, mudslinging, politicians stirring the pot, media reporting and lying to us,  all causing division and fear right and left.  When normally we could stand in a room together as believers and hear truth spoken, bowing and praying together for wisdom and strength and healing, now we are scattered.  We all have tried desperately to stay connected through livestream and Zoom.  It is so hard.  People with small children find it difficult to try and experience worship this way.  Too many distractions.  Teens are drifting away and choosing not to join Zoom gatherings.  Adults who haven’t gathered are trying to stay faithful, but are finding other things to do on Sunday mornings with their families.  I wonder, if we are ever able to gather together again as a church, will there even be that many people who will gather?  Five months is twenty Sunday’s with no church.  My aunt once told me it takes 21 days to form a new habit.  So will it take only 21 Sundays for people to form new habits and not make church a priority anymore?

I don’t want this to sound like church is the most important thing.  Because I know that the most important thing is God and serving Him, and sharing the the gospel whether we are able to attend church or not.  But we humans are needy and we need to be with our people and not isolated.  I trust God.  I know He’s using this for His glory.  We just have to remain faithful to Him.  I just don’t want to be trusting people who have their own agenda and who will manipulate people, even an entire nation, to be able to control them.  With all the unrest and division, the time we need to gather the most to find strength and encouragement has been taken away.

So.  I will continue to pray.  I will continue to watch livestream from our church.  I will continue to Zoom with our Lifegroup.  I will continue to study His Word.  And, I will go to church with my daughter and her husband on Sunday mornings.

answers, covid19, Encouragement, friends, God, Life, Love, People, promises, searching, Uncategorized

Three Months Later

dana2day

It’s been three  months since I have blogged.  Nothing much has changed in our world.  Coronavirus is still stirring around our nation and making people fearful.  Masks are a huge controversy – are they helpful?  are they hurtful?  Who knows for sure!  But now we’ve added a new dynamic to our current situation, racial unrest.  While it has been around since the beginning of the human race, and at times we have definitely missed the mark as a country, and yet the country we live in now is a better place than it was 50 years ago, racial unrest in our country has opened the door for people to do things that, honestly, will have no positive affect on any racial injustice, but will only be seen as destructive behavior.  Destructive actions never result in positive results.  The actions we see splashed across the news and social media have invited dishonest, narcissistic and evil people to jump on board both physically and financially to promote their own agendas, not to make this country a better place.  It is quite frustrating to watch.  While we all watched, in horror, as George Floyd was treated completely inhumanely, and I know no one who wouldn’t agree that the officer needed to be held accountable, the retaliation has spread across the country as quickly as the virus of the 2020 Pandemic.  The actions that followed against people and their personal property and businesses was unnecessary.  The defacing and tearing down of national monuments and statues is shameful.  Why can’t people just come to the table with their ideas of making this world a better place, discuss it, logically evaluate how to make the changes, willing to compromise on both sides, not try to be unreasonable or unrealistic and come to an agreement to agree and implement processes that will satisfy both “sides” and begin a new era.  (I believe that may be a run on sentence right there!!!). Destructive behaviors only lead to other actions that eventually hurt people and make for a violent and unsafe environment to live.  Many people, I think, are sick of “the sides”.  There should be no sides on this subject.  Racial issues should not be issues at all.  People should all be treated equally, with kindness, with integrity.

I don’t know what the future holds.  I don’t know if this is the new normal.  I don’t know if this is “end times” full on.  I don’t know if all this is going to go all “bad futuristic movie with splintered factions wearing bad clothing choices and looking as if they haven’t had a bath in about ten years, or if we are going to wake to planes dropping enemy shoulders from the sky to take over our country”.  I do know that God is in control.  It’s not like we haven’t had His Word to read.  If you turn on over to Revelation, it gives you the heads up on how it all ends.  It’s all very poetic and filled with symbolic descriptions of how it will all go down.  But it is there.  Not to mention the other writers of God’s Word that hinted prophetically to the way God would wrap this whole Earthly era up.

We all agree that, for the US anyway, we are experiencing things we haven’t experienced in the last few generations.  Maybe the much older generation still hanging around can tell stories of shortages, sickness, shut-downs and other hard times, but from the 60’s forward, we’ve pretty much been on fast forward till here we are in 2020.  While we are social distanced in all areas of life, technology has us connected.  So apart, yet connected.  But that connection is interrupted and influenced by so many outside sources that we are confused about what the truth is. Are you anxious?  Are you afraid?  I can say, without blinking, I am not afraid or fearful.  I may be a wee bit anxious, but only because I want to be clear if or when I should be doing anything to prepare.  But that’s another blog.

There is no need for fear.  God is with us.  If you are reading this, and things I have said make no sense.  If you find yourself struggling with fears.  If you walk around with an overwhelming sense of anxiousness about the future.  You can find peace.  It begins with a repentance. We have to acknowledge we are sinners.  We have to understand there is nothing we could do to earn forgiveness.  It is acknowledging we are a sinner and realizing that we can’t do anything to pay for that sin, that is the beginning.  It is believing that Jesus is the Son of God, sent to be born of a virgin, to live among us, to spend 3 years sharing the good news, paying the ultimate sacrifice with His life and blood on the cross for our sins to be forgiven, and then rose on the 3rd day just as prophesied!  He then ascended to heaven to be with His Father and  sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in all who believed, repented and were baptized in His name.   Grace.  Unmerited favor.  God loved us so much, that He sent His only Son to die for us, so that we could be made clean, and that we could spend eternity with Him.