Normalcy

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. As I got home from a day of farm calls, I scrolled through social media and saw this photo posted of my church’s sanctuary. It struck me.

I have been missing “church” as I have come to know, love, and need it. We have done livestream and now are open for restricted capacity. We wear our masks, have temperature scanned before entering, and have assigned seating with our households and are distanced from others. There is no choir and there is no congregational singing. It is different, just as it should be in such a time. But, you know, it is fine to not be ok with it. It is ok to miss normalcy.

This picture of the sanctuary transforming into its normal seasonal look is comforting. It is comforting that not everything normal is lost. This pandemic has highlighted how important my set time of worship and gathering is to my own health. I can feel that my spiritual health is worse.

I miss meeting up with our small group and talking way too long before actually getting to the lesson. I miss that time for all of us to just share how hard life can be and how some weeks seem like 40 days instead of 7. I miss hearing the funny things their kids do and what is going on in their lives – selling a home, a new building project, a sick parent, a positive health update. I miss seeing their faces when they take the first sip of the coffee that I made “too strong”. It tastes fine to me…always.

I miss hugging some of the sweetest saints before the worship hour starts. I miss the good morning handshakes. I miss that lump in my throat, cold chill, and wet eyes when hearing something absolutely beautiful coming from the choir loft. Organ, piano, and harmony.

That’s my church experience and it is important to me. It’s 2 hours on a Sunday morning that I do not have a work phone on and I focus on connecting with people who share a profound belief in a God who designed us for good, and a God worthy of our worship. A God who is present in our seemingly chaotic and unfair world, as impossible as it seems to find Him some days. These people share in the struggles and burdens. Perfectly imperfect people getting honest with themselves and their creator.

I am thankful tonight for the ways that “church” enhances my life and points me toward the Devine. I am thankful to have found a congregation who is just plain honest about Jesus’s message of love, forgiveness, and hope. A congregation focused on relationships, not using fear to drive decisions or affect numbers. A congregation doing missional work and evangelizing by example in their everyday lives.

So this picture represents a head nod to normalcy as we enter Advent, the most wonderful time of the year. Scientists tell us we’re also heading into challenging days with increased coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and death projections. Chaos. I am reminded of a study we did a few years ago entitled, “Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam”. Christmas happens in the midst of chaos every year – just as it did the first Christmas. As the study put it, God works in the chaos and makes himself known in Jesus Christ. Pheeew. God works in 2020 and makes himself known in Jesus Christ. Come, Lord Jesus Come. We need the advent season now more than ever.