All is Well

Before me, even as behind, God is, and all is well ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

The Importance of Gathering

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This morning, we woke up, got dressed and prepared for worship, like we do every Sunday morning.

Except.

Except this morning, at 9:45 am, instead of making our way to our church building, finding a parking spot, chatting with folks in the foyer and the beloved “donut room” (where, you guessed it, are donuts), and settling into our normal seats in the sanctuary, our family gathered in our living room, where we screen-cast a Facebook live feed on our TV, to listen to our pastor preach the gospel.

As I sat there, I wondered how long the mandate to practice social distancing due to Covid-19 will last.  I thought forward to Resurrection Sunday – will we still be worshiping our risen Savior in semi-isolation?  Will the government directive to gather in groups of no more than 10, to help slow the progress of the Coronavirus still be in place?  What about this summer, around Vacation Bible School time?  How about in the fall?  Christmas?

There was much good this morning, in the midst of the chaos and anxiety.  My Facebook feed was full of friends posting similar activities from their churches – pastor’s streaming their sermons online; worship teams leading music as congregants were encouraged to sing loudly from their living rooms.  A few churches held “Car Church” – with cars lined up in a parking lot, with the pastor on a stage using loudspeakers to preach the word.

But there was also a distinct sadness.  A sorrow and grief, that we can not be together, as church families, in the midst of this world-wide crises.

And, for me, there was deep awareness of a need to guard my heart against complacency during this time.

I’m an introvert by nature.  I can be extroverted – I can absolutely function highly in social settings.  I love people; I love to care for people.  But I am most selfishly settled, when I am alone.  At home, or outside…with my husband and family, or by myself.  My soul longs and aches for solitude under the big blue sky.

There’s a really funny meme floating around social media right now (and, really, there are a lot of funny memes currently – people are so crazy creative, and laughter truly is good medicine).  This particular meme captures my introverted-ness well:

 

Yeah, I’ve got social distancing down to an art form.  As long as I have my family nearby, my books, my laptop, Amazon, and I can get outside to see the sky, and to walk and ride my bike, I’m usually good to go.

However, this past Wednesday, during our church’s first online Bible Study led by our pastor, he said something that cut right to the center of my introvertedness, and he shared scripture that shined a light on my soul as a red flag warning me to not let my introverted tendencies turn to sinful self-centeredness.

He told us, his now ‘virtual’ congregation, that we should hate this situation, for so many reasons.

Of course, we should and are grieving the pain and death this virus is wreaking.  We should mourn and support our brave medical personnel, fighting on the frontlines.  We should do what we can, to help – practice social distancing, limit gathering outside of immediate family groups, good hygiene practices, providing support where we can.

But we should also despise this time during which we can not meet together.  We should loathe the fact that we can not break bread together, that we can not take communion as a church family, that we can not shake hands, and hug and listen to each other’s hearts in person.  We should sing loudly in our homes, yet grieve deeply that we can not hear each other’s voices also lifted up in song.

Wow.

My soul.  He’s so right.

He’s only right, because scripture confirms this truth.

In Hebrews 10, we see these verses about the church:

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Do you see it, dear reader?  Right there, in verse 25, we are warned to not neglect meeting together, but to encourage each other.  To stir each other up to love and good works.  To BE together.  As a church family, as the body of Christ, as a group of individuals with joys and sorrows and gifts and needs worshiping our God, together.

When I am with my church family, there is a sweetness that permeates the atmosphere that can’t be found at a football game, or a concert, or a conference.  There’s a sense in which those few, precious moments (and, they are sadly few, if you take into account the actual percentage of our weeks we spend together) is a glimpse into what heaven will be like when “…every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them [will be] saying, “To him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13)

When I am studying the word, listening to preaching, praying, singing and worshiping my God, alongside my church family, I am reminded all over again, of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

And, that is something we each need to be reminded of, often.

Our ministerial staff, alongside nearly every other church staff in America and around the world, are working tirelessly to figure out how to minister to their people, in these difficult days.  I’m so proud of our staff; and encouraged by the support that I see our congregation giving them in these early days.  We worshiped this morning well, as a family here in our living room, and as a church family in our individual living rooms, cars, bedrooms, and backyards across the county.  We were fed God’s word.  We sung hymns of faith.  We encouraged each other via comments on social media.  It was a beautiful morning.

But, in the words of my pastor from this past Wednesday, I need to hate it.  I need to guard my heart against complacency and the idol of solitude.  I need to actively seek ways in which I can love my neighbors and church family well, during these days.  In what ways can I continue to care for those who are aching?  What can I do, to support my church staff?  What am I doing, to share who Jesus is with my community?

Galatians 6:9-10 contain words that are helpful, as I think on these things:

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

I…and we, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, need to grieve that we can not be in each other’s presence right now – and long and pray fervently for the day in which we can be.

What a day of rejoicing that will be!

Sometimes Standing is Moving

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Quicksand_4

We, as a whole, are goal setters.

In one week, I typically participate in 18-20 teleconferences; some weeks many more than that.  Objectives are laid out, and Action Items are identified to help move toward the end goal, tasks are assigned, and tracking spreadsheets for all these things are updated.  And, that’s a good thing.  A very good thing.  It’s how bridges are built, technology is innovated, rocket ships are launched, cures for diseases are found–by incrementally tracking planned courses of actions that keep a task moving forward.  We like to see progress.  We like things to be quantifiable.

I like things to be quantifiable.  For instance, in my (hard) work to reach my goal of 100 pounds lost (closing in on 70 pounds lost–so close to that mark), I know the following information about this past week:

  • I took 78,744 Steps
  • I walked 33.96 Miles
  • I burned 19,635 Calories
  • I was “active” for 742 minutes

Nerdy, huh?  Quite.

I like to see progress.  I like forward movement.

I despise losing ground.

I tend to fall to the (sin?) of approaching my relationship with God the same way.   Often, I have to fight the urge to quantify what being a Christ-follower looks like.  I have to fight the pull of being the snotty-nosed, disheveled child who brings home the B- on their report card and who says (to God) “Look, God, are you proud?  Do you see what I have accomplished?”

I think we are all like that, to some degree.  Maybe.

“Don’t just do something, stand there.” ~ Dr. Al Mohler

I read the above quote by Dr. Mohler a few weeks ago.  He uttered these words during a convocation sermon at Southern Seminary in the year 1993.  I may have actually been there, though I don’t remember it.  I certainly remember the climate of the school at the time, though, and reading over the transcript of his sermon, I understand his purpose behind the words–his exhortation to the seminary community to stand on scriptural foundations as put forth by school’s Abstract of Principles.  At the time, the atmosphere was hostile.  His words, and his stance behind the words, helped turn the very large ship of Southern Seminary around and back into Biblically clear waters.

However, I feel pulled toward Dr. Mohler’s words in another sense.  Not that I wish to take them out of context, but I think there can be other, similar meanings applied.

For example, there are times that, as Christ-followers, standing fast is forward movement.  Standing fast is progress.

Discouragement and grief can so quickly morph into unbelief and doubt, by default.

Good gracious, how well I know this to be truth.  This past week, even.  This week.  My soul.

And, unbelief and doubt can quickly morph into despair.  This, too, I know to be truth.

And, I suppose, there is much sin in that despair.  And sin in the unbelief and doubt.  Much.

It’s kind of like quicksand.  Quicksand often appears solid, but isn’t–much like sin; it gives the appearance of being able to support weight.  But, in reality, an agitation of some sort has occurred to the ecosystem, causing the sediment to lose strength by liquefying and to becoming unable to support weight.  An object sinks in the sand to the point that the weight of the object is equal to the weight of the displaced water and sand.

And it’s not easy to get out of.

Discouragement and grief can, on occasion, agitate the soil of being sure, leading to displacement of certainty.  And, then, despair (and unbelief) (and sin?) holds us there.

And flailing about seems to only strengthen the grip of the sand.

Or the despair.

Sometimes, standing fast is progress.

We see this time and time again in scripture.  Most famously, we are told this in Ephesians 6:13.  After being instructed in how to put on the armor of God (that’s not cross-stitch, key chain, Christian Bookstore t-shirt stuff.  Look it up and look beyond the imagery), we are told this:

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Here’s what’s interesting about this Ephesians verse, though–these words:  “Having done all”.  In order to stand firm, there is still work to be done.  Every single day, there is work to be done.  But it is not the work of Action Items and task lists and quantifiable spreadsheets, as wonderfully nerdy as those things are.  It’s soul work of prayer.  Of worship.  Of confession.  Of confession.  Of confession.

But, sometimes, once that work is accomplished, the task becomes to “Stand Fast.”

To not waver.  To not doubt.  To not give way to unbelief and cynicism.  To not despair, even in the grief and discouragement.  It’s the stuff of Hebrews 10:23:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

We mimic the Psalmist, “Why are thou downcast, O soul?  Hope thou in God.  Without wavering.  He is faithful.  He has to be.  He is, surely He is.  Surely He will hear.  Surely He will answer.”

It’s the Standing Fast of 1st Thessalonians 3:8.

Standing Fast sometimes takes more energy than surging (flailing?), or giving up and drowning.  However, always, always, always this is truth: standing fast in God is forward movement toward soul-knowledge of who He is.

 

 

 

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