Some people love those e-reader book things.
Not me.
I LOVE real books. I love the way they smell. The way you cradle them in your lap. I can read books on an airplane when all electronics have been shut off. I crease pages and write in them. I highlight favorite parts and return later. Books never give me notifications, never need to be charged and never have a pinwheel saying loading. Perhaps my favorite feature of books is the instant progress report of a bookmark. You can see and feel all you’ve read. Sure an e-book robotically tells you 34% is finished, but it just aint the same as a solid bookmark taken from a receipt of bananas and carne asada from the market 4 years ago.
But life isn’t books. We don’t have a progress bar. There’s no luxury of knowing when this will end. Coronavirus has given us anxiety about an uncertain future. We’ve had to hunker down in our homes. For some parents that means, no moment for thought. Thoughts drowned out by “Kid’s Bop” and shouting often fail to go beyond surface and survival. For others it is a desperate loneliness. Some sit alone in darkened homes, waiting for a call or porch visit.
Oh to hug my mom, who hasn’t felt the touch of another human in over 100 days.
And even still, we don’t know if we are in the final chapter of the struggle or the second chapter. (Depressing, I know!)
Because of this, most of us have gone into survival mode. Looking inward. And this is not bad if it draws us to Jesus and God’s word.
But as we venture into new chapters, I hope our eyes return to the horizon, to our neighbor and to our church family.
Perhaps there is someone you know you would love an invite. Maybe for you a five minute call feels like a meager offering, but there may be someone who would cling to it for the rest of the week like a breath of oxygen under water.
For now, it’s okay to focus on you and your family needs, but let us not forget we are surrounded by people who desperately need hope right now and as a light bearer, you can bring the hope of Christ to those who have little momentary hope.
Chapter 12 will come one day and when it does,
consider those whose children are not often invited to play dates.
Consider those who never get the invite to lunch.
Consider those who could really use a friend.
We are going to get this wrong, but as a church we can continually strive to grow in this area.
I believe in you, City Life.
You got this,
Pastor Dale