Skip to main content

Moving Past COVID

Well, it looks like things are finally turning around. Here in Illinois things will soon be largely back to normal as restaurants, businesses, and theaters once again open their doors to full capacity. Movies will start being released again, masks will start becoming a less frequent sight, and people will finally be able to give hugs and shake hands.

All this is wonderful news, and on the church front things are looking up as well. No more muffled singing, a resuming of activities, and more in person events are something to look forward to and enjoy. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad!

There is one thing I hope we don't do, but probably will anyway. With everything going back to normal I hope we don't jump headlong into being ultra-busy like normal. If COVID brought one benefit it was that for many, though not all, it forced us to slow down and appreciate what we have.

I appreciate far more than I ever realized how much I value being with fellow Christians in person. I now know just how much I need a good hug after going extremely long stretches without any contact at all. I also now understand that what really matters is community, being with others.

As we go back to our lives perhaps we should try to hang on to the important things. The temptation, I think, will be to go from 0-100 immediately and once again fill our lives with business and noise. In so doing we might once again take for granted those things that, after being deprived of them for a time, are really impactful and important.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We Need More Images

What is your favorite way to describe God? Is there a particular name of God in scripture that you are drawn to? What images and pictures come to mind when you think of God? These are questions I don't think we ask often enough. We all have an image of God in our heads that we work with. It may not be a literal picture, though it might be, but ideas and concepts we tend to associate with who God is. Some of those images and associations may come from the Bible, but some may not. These things are influenced by our upbringing, Bible reading habits, personalities, relationships, culture, and more. The way we picture God has a dramatic impact on the way we live our lives. For example, if the primary idea you have of God is "Healer," when you hear or read that you are made in God's image you will likely feel called to heal, be it physical ailments or spiritual wounds. But, if your primary image of God is "Judge," that changes things. You very likely might tend to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

The Early Middle Ages: Historical Friday

The next segment of history that we are going to overview is the Early Middle Ages. This dates roughly from AD 450 to AD 1100. This is intended to be a very general overview. There are probably historians that would classify some other time period as the "Early Middle Ages" or a more specific time period. For our purposes this will cover the aforementioned time period. This was a very influential period in the history of Christianity. It saw the formation of what we now call the Roman Catholic Church and its separation from what we would now call the Eastern Orthodox Church. Before this time there was only ONE church. There weren't different denominations or groups. It is hard for us to think about in our modern context, but there was a time when Christianity was visibly unified. Brief History The first major thing to happen during this time period is the remaining three ecumenical councils. We discussed the first four several weeks ago. These councils discussed va...
Post a Comment
Read more