Tag Archives: Pandemic

November 1, 2021 · 7:54 pm

Handling a Cultural Shift

The Introduction

Today is one of those transitional days.  We are honoring our dads and their influences in our lives, and we are closing out spring and moving into true summer.  It is interesting how we mark our calendars and how pivotal days like today keep us connected to traditions and guides us through our lives.  If we seem so glued to our calendars, then how come things change?

Most of you know that I took a vacation–a pandemic-delayed vacation.  This trip was never one I had considered, but my close friend encouraged or pushed me to go to Disney World.  (It did not help that my daughter joined her efforts.)  

Still, this trip demonstrated to me that I had been unaware of a cultural shift that was playing out in front of me.  I had not been in a setting outside of our local community for well over two years, primarily because of the pandemic.  I had not stepped outside of my culture and looked at the larger, global culture until I spent these days people watching.

What did I see?  Certainly, I saw an environment that focused on fun, but I saw much more.  I saw families in an entirely new light.  The families came in all shapes, sizes, and cultures.  The stereotypical Midwest family image with which I grew up and worked around has become redefined; and after a week, I am glad to report that it is better than my own preset image.

One morning I woke up to a dream and a new insight because I realized that we are undergoing a cultural shift in defining the family, but maybe more specifically a shift in the roles of the 21st century parents. A cultural shift is nothing new, but the evolution can be so slow we fail to acknowledge it and then inadvertently do not understand it–maybe even fight it whether good or bad.

Today, I am going to share some of the evidence I witnessed and then relate it to how God is always present with us, even when we are in the midst of a cultural shift.

I suggest that you have your favorite Bible at hand as well as notetaking supplies.  You may need to make a note to read more details or to ask questions as we dig deeper into God’s presence during a cultural shift.  Let us ask God for understanding:

Dear Loving Father,

Open our minds to your wisdom preserved in scripture.

Open our hearts as we seek to understand your presence.

Open our eyes that we may see you in the lives of others.  –Amen

The Message

            Throughout these months of the pandemic, the term pod has become synonymous with that of family.  The CDC has encouraged us to stay within our close-knit family and friends.  Certainly, the family are those living under the same roof; but as the months of shutdown continued, the boundaries of our homes began to shift and the term pod became more common.  Pods grew to include close friends and then even our working peers.  Our culture shifted and is shifting.

            In the Bible, the first five books lay out the beginning history and even the laws that the Israelites were to follow as they managed the challenges of living faithfully among pagan followers.  The Israelites were those who followed God, lived by his laws, and worked together in maintaining that close relationship with God.

            In the selection from Deuteronomy 11:18-21 we read about the Laws of Moses, and these verses are just a small piece of the laws:

18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem[a] on your forehead. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.  –NRSV

            As the generations of the Israelites continued, the success of their faithfulness was challenged.  The culture was tribal and the laws that developed were to keep the tribes together and to define the various roles of those within the tribes.  

For instance, there are 11 tribes, and each one has a specific geographical location, but the 12th tribe is that of the Levites.  The Levites were the priests and could not hold property.  They lived to serve the other tribes in the practices of worship–which included the sacrifices and distribution of food from those sacrifices as outlined in the laws.

The tribal culture provided order for the people and the laws created became more and more specific, challenges to the culture came from other cultures’ attacks.  When the Israelites were overpowered by the pagan cultures, they were often taken in as slaves.  The challenge then became how to maintain the faithful God-centered culture while living among pagans.

In Daniel, we see a model of how to live faithfully even among the pagans: 

8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the royal rations of food and wine; so he asked the palace master to allow him not to defile himself.  . . . 11 Then Daniel asked the guard . . . 12 “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 You can then compare our appearance with the appearance of the young men who eat the royal rations, and deal with your servants according to what you observe.”  –NRSV

Even though captured by King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel remained faithful to his culture and led his friends Meshack, Shadrach and Abednego, demonstrating their culture’s diet is superior to that of even the pagan king’s personal diet.

Between these two Old Testament scriptures, we see how the ancient culture of the Israelites evolved.  No longer was the faithful bound by the tribal culture, now they could live their faith even among the pagans.  The culture was shifting, the faithful Israelites were adapting to new cultures while maintaining their own.

Of course, today’s cultural shift follows another shift outlined in the New Testament.  The global cultures continue to evolve as the influences from one culture meet other cultures.  As the travels of the ancient people continued to expand, the tribal culture and the ancient Law of Moses begin to evolve.  The evil influences become invasive and the Jewish religious leaders exercised control by adding more and more restrictive laws.  God saw a need to step in.

Jesus, God as man, is born and his purpose is to teach the people, not only the Jewish people, but all people, a new law: 

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.  –Matthew 7:12, NRSV

A cultural shift begins to evolve again.

As King David shared in Proverbs:  basic life instructions to preserve the God-centered culture of the Israelites:

1Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
    and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
2 for I give you good precepts:
    do not forsake my teaching.  –Proverbs 4:1-2, NRSV

Now Jesus began teaching the new law of the faithful.  He lived his message teaching the disciples how to love one another, how to shift the culture away from the minute, excessive, restrictive laws the Jewish leaders had created over the generations.  One simple law encompasses all other laws:  love one another.

            The culture shifted.  In three short years of ministry, Jesus moved the faithful into a new structure for everybody.  The culture of the Israelites simplified as the global influences broke down geographical boundaries, peoples moved in and out of other cultures.  

            Today, we see how effective following Jesus’ one law has changed the global community.  What started as a movement in one small region along the Mediterranean Coast grew.  The faithful disciples continued Jesus’ work and the Christian faith expanded in all directions until it wrapped around this globe.

            So why do I believe we are in a cultural shift?  The pandemic has forced us to stop and re-evaluate our lives.  First, we lived within the geographical boundaries of our houses, then slowly expanded to our immediate neighbors, and grew into tight-knit pods of those with whom we live, eat, work, and play.  The boundaries were defined physically, but the human relationships defined the pods. 

We discovered that our faith family no longer was simply those who met once a week in a church sanctuary to worship together as we began worshipping with a global community through the internet.  

We redefined our definition of family as a pod.  Now a pod may have been a small group that maintained its connection through Zoom and then, thanks to masks and vaccinations, slowly became that close-knit pod meeting in person once more.  The faith community has evolved into a new culture, just as our families have.  

This brings me back to my vacation.  As we moved into the airports, we witnessed a culture shift.  Pods sat together.  Close inspection of the pods showed families, but also working teams, small groups such as a Christian school taking the seniors on a trip.  

The next step was to reach Disney World itself where I saw a new culture unfolding before my eyes.  I witnessed new family structures.  I watched parental roles shift.  I found hope.  I found compassion.  I found a world where Jesus’ commandment was being lived out each loving one another as they want to be loved.

“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.  –Matthew 7:12 from the Message translation

What proof did I have that our 21st century culture is living out the Golden Rule.  Well, the temperature on those days at Disney World averaged about 93 degrees.  We carried water bottles and all the travel blogs assured visitors would be able to get fresh water simply by asking.

            At one point, my friend asked a server for a glass of ice water–the reply was no, but she could go over to another line and ask for it over there.  Not wanting to disrupt that line, we found a spot around the corner and managed.  While sitting there, a young couple spotted us, came up and gave her a bottle of cold water.  They said they heard the server tell her no, so bought one for her, not knowing exactly where we had landed.  They sought us out, they paid it forward.  They loved as they wanted to be loved.

            The culture shifted.  There is a culture existing within a pandemic that does look out for one another.  There are young people being trained by parents and pods that are stepping forward to love one another as Jesus asks us to do.

            Today we are returning to life as we knew it pre-pandemic.  But I am confident that the pandemic did not suddenly, artificially impose a cultural shift.  As I walked the various parks, 

  • I saw generations loving one another.  (even using the circumstances to make the gender reveal)
  • I saw blended families loving one another.  
  • I saw multicultural families walking and laughing together.  
  • I saw mixed gender couples, even with children, walking freely among the masses without fear, without guilt.  
  • I saw strangers treating others as pod members standing in lines trying to manage fussy kids, and the newly-created friendships for the moment working together to make the vacation memorable.
  • I witnessed a cultural shift.

            How did this happen?  I firmly believe that the parables we have in the New Testament have taught us how to live God’s love for one another.  I believe that we have fathers who have discovered the value of being fully engaged in the teaching of Christian values to their families–another cultural shift.

            The fathers walking with their wives and the kids do not follow the stereotypes of fathers I grew to know.  The role of father is now as equal as that of the mothers.  The fathers carry the babies.  The fathers walk the kids to the restroom.  One father allowed his toddler daughter to put lipstick on him even though it missed and hit the cap.  Fathers play openly with the kids.

            Maybe my stereotypes are just mine, but I believe that when Jesus used the parables, he was trying to break stereotypes.  Jesus wanted us to see each other just as we see ourselves.  As I witnessed a shift in cultural stereotypes, I am reminded of the parable of the blind leading the blind:

“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.–Luke 6:39-42, NRSV  

Those days of walking around the various parks, watching the mingling of peoples, I found that my own stereotypes were making me blind to the cultural shifts that have continued to evolve even and maybe even assisted by a pandemic.

            In Matthew 15, the parable of the blind leading the blind is wrapped in the middle of another lesson from Jesus.  The restrictive laws for the Jewish diet were challenged when Jesus and his disciples broke some of the laws as they ate together.  The Jewish leaders were offended and challenged Jesus.  A cultural shift was needed, and it includes a warning for us yet today as we teach our next generation:

10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”  . . . 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

Today is Father’s Day, and as I have thought about the vacation and what I witnessed, I know that Jesus’ parables provide us with the very rules for establishing new cultural standards away from the name-calling, bullying, angry, hateful behaviors we have watched our pre-pandemic world had become.

            Maybe the pandemic slowed us down, forced us to reevaluate how we have been living, and showed us that we can raise our families to love one another and to love others outside our pod just as we want to live.  We must not continue leading by outdated laws, outdated stereotypes, instead we must be the leaders in our community showing those who are blind God’s love.  

We need to re-evaluate how we speak and act in front of our children–not just those in our homes, but to our community’s children.  We need to speak in words loaded with love, grace, and compassion.  We need to live our faith openly by our actions so future generations will model those same behaviors breaking stereotypes that restrict us from living in Christian community with each other.

Our culture is shifting, and God depends on us to teach one another in our families, in our pods, and across the globe the one commandment:  love one another as you want to be loved.

Even as Jesus led the ancient people in a cultural shift, we continue to use our Heavenly Father’s words to learn how to live out God’s one commandment through the parables.  In Proverbs, David goes on to clarify that a father’s–earthly and heavenly–instruction brings wisdom 

“Let your heart hold fast my words;
    keep my commandments, and live.
5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away
    from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
    love her, and she will guard you.  –Proverbs 4:4-6, NRSV

            As we end today, think about the way cultures have shifted since the scriptures began sharing the story of God’s faithful.  The words share our Heavenly Father’s wisdom, and our earthly fathers, mothers and more help us keep God-centered even as the culture evolves–we are all part of God’s world.  Please join me in prayer:

Dear Omnipotent Father,

Guide each of us to follow Jesus’ teachings

so the words of our mouths speak love

   to one another.

Open our eyes to the world around us

so we may see your love in action.

Let each of us grow in faith

so we may be the agents of change,

teaching our children to love one another.

Let us be the agents of change

working to expand your kingdom

even here on earth.  –Amen

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December 25, 2020 · 12:16 pm

Christmas Day musings 2020:

An exercise in stream of conscious writing

When I woke up at 4:30 this morning, I could not help but remember how many times as a kid that 4:30 did not seem so early for Christmas morning.  This time I did not run to the living room to see what Santa had brought.  This time I laid in vws and started thinking about a range of things.

Now it is six hours later, I have fixed a Christmas morning brunch, started sourdough bread, and am just generally relaxed.  Christmas no longer resembles the ones from my childhood.  Circumstances have forced Christmas to be refocused.

The Upper Room devotional reaffirmed this may be a natural transition in our lives as we age (at least I translated that from the narrative), but I had to remember this was written at least a year ago–before the pandemic.  Here is the final statement in this reflection:

“For a long time, Christmas was just an annual tradition with to-do lists and performances. This year, I experienced Christmas from another perspective as I let myself come as a person longing to see the Savior.”

In the midst of the pandemic, we have been called to change our patterns of behavior.  We are to stay away from our annual family gatherings–and some easily add up to over 20.  We wear masks wherever we go, even into the bank lobbies.  And we stay home.  

I cannot imagine how this year’s experience is going to transform our lives as we move forward, but it must.  We must all refocus our values; to put our faith in God first, our family next, and then we can begin developing our individual goals, passions, bucket lists, and so on.

Personally, I cannot seem to think ahead right now.  We have become fixated on the immediate situation of the pandemic with no defined end in sight.  Yes, we need to get vaccinated, but it is not yet readily available.  Instead, masks, social distancing, and washing hands become our norm–not bad but good habits, really.

Oddly, as I had to face a quarantine before Christmas, I could not help but compare it to an experience when I was in 6th grade.  I had the lead role in our elementary Christmas play, and I got German measles–my brother and myself.

Two weeks we were at home.  We had a hide-a-bed sofa in the front room.  Mom pulled it out and we stayed there most of the time.  There were some behaviors that had to change then too.

For instance, at that time the medical field thought we should not use our eyes much so the lights were dimmed, no TV watching (it was fairly new in our household and it was only on in the evenings–after supper), and no one could come around because it was so contagious.  We even had a doctor who made a house call and we lived 8 miles out of town.

For two weeks before Christmas, we were confined to the house on the farm.  Mom read us a book.  We ate meals on that hide-a-bed sofa, stayed in our pajamas, and waited for the measles to go away.  And they did.  The doctor gave us the ok on Christmas Eve to go out.

Dad took us shopping in town.  I can remember vividly going to Ben Franklin to Christmas shop.  I can’t remember what we got except for one thing–the Brach’s Christmas star chocolates from the bulk candy counter.  Odd that that stands out over any other shopping we did.

Yes, I had missed my star role in the Christmas play.  My brother and I had two weeks off school.  It was a very different Christmas, but we had the old-fashioned measles healed just in time for Christmas.

This year I got out of quarantine one week before Christmas Day.  We did not get to shop very much.  I did not get to bake like I usually do.  We did not have social gatherings.  We have not even gone to see Christmas lights.  Why I did not even put up the Christmas tree!

  • A year ago, I would never have expected our year to be transformed like it has been.  
  • A year ago, I would have never thought I would miss participating in our church’s Advent and Christmas Eve services.  
  • A year ago, I never dreamed getting COVID-19 would change my Christmas routines.
  • A year from now, I hope to have the vaccine.  
  • A year from now, I hope my values remain focused on the reason for the season–the birth of Jesus Christ who taught us how to love one another.

A year from now . . . well who can tell.  I just hope we can preserve some of the positives that can protect us from losing the focus on our values:  faith, family, and friends.

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December 15, 2020 · 9:45 am

Thoughts from Quarantine 2020

Waking up this morning, I feel Christmas sneaking in on me.  There are clouds and the possibility to see snowflakes in the air, and it is cold–24 degrees.  And yet, I am in quarantine.

Christmas has been central to my life forever.  Growing up on the farm, Christmas was a time we developed all those traditions that seem to make a Norman Rockwell painting–cutting the Christmas tree out in the woods, snow falling, popcorn snacks, Christmas baking.  You get the picture.

But then 2020, a year that we all suspected would be filled with clarity and hope simply based on that nice, round number and the metaphoric connection to clear vision, hit us hard.

News reports of a highly contagious virus started creeping into our psyche, and in March a shut down.  We did not understand the full ramifications of a nation-wide shutdown but what was a nation to do.  Shut down.

Then slowly, life adapted.  Fear subsided a bit, but caution was maintained.  In my world, masks stay in the car, in my purse or pocket, and they go on when I get out of the car.  Even at the office, the mask went on when someone walked into our bubble or we had a conversation–still 6 feet apart, too.

Months slid past, then we got bit by the bug.  COVID hit us both and in very different ways.  My husband coughed and coughed and coughed until he thought he had broken ribs.  He was totally wiped out.

Then just a few days later, I started questioning how I felt.  I thought it was mild sinus problem and started the sinus meds with Mucinex.  A conversation with the county health nurse pushed me to test–positive, too.

So we found ourselves in an honest, full-fledged quarantine.  Smack dab in the middle of one of the busiest seasons in my life–Advent.  For a pastor this just seemed surreal.  How was I going to contribute to the season’s worship?

Well, I can now tell you that there are ways to make things work and work well.  True I have given up the in-person element, but the months of preparation made it possible to still provide an element of input–Zoom, videotaping at home, and emailing.  I can work at home.

Still, quarantine has dramatically changed our lives in so many ways.  Working is one thing but stop and consider all the other affects that COVID-19 has created in our world.

Health:  I seriously doubt that our news channels have ever spent so much airtime explaining how to be healthy, the specifics of the coronavirus, how it spreads, how the medical field is managing, and how to know when you are sick and when to get tested.  I have to admit I would never have thought the symptoms I was experiencing were anything to be concerned about except I had been informed.  Thank you to the information flood.

Work Force:  Our economy is challenged.  We had been living in a society that could ignore the lowest economic strata convincing our middle class and affluent selves that we are privileged to live in our nation free from extreme poverty–and then the pandemic.  Our work force has been depleted.  Families are in crisis with job losses, income loss, and so many more problems.  

Our culture is being redefined.  I have witnessed one young family become one victims and then watch the church family rally around them.  As I sit here with the news on, I am watching a country learn how critical it is to provide food for the masses.  City after city is being featured for their food drives and it is shocking to see the massive lines of cars.

2020 is going to redefine the work force culture and I pray that the CEO’s and boards understand that our world can collapse if they do not value the employees as the most important component of their industries.  

Medical Services:  Because we are a democracy and capitalism is the base of our culture, we have a medical industry that has focused on profit not on service.  Then the pandemic shifted the focus to the frontline workers.  For the first time in my life, I see our country value the nurses, the doctors, the EMTs, even the nurses’ aids who clean the patients, the technicians, the custodial staff and so many, many employees essential to the wellbeing of our family and friends.

Hopefully this will force our culture to redefine their values.  Our medical industry needs to be identified as a necessity and be aligned to the utilities that are necessary for a society to function.  The profit margin needs to be monitored and the medical workers should be valued as highly as they are now on throughout history.

Education:  Teachers are frontline workers, too.  Our country guarantees a free education to all who live within our boundaries.  Why have we failed to acknowledge the critical role of our teachers?  Why are our teachers one of the lowest paid professionals?  Why do we put educational requirements on our teachers but do not support that financially?

When the pandemic shut down our world, the teachers had to keep teaching.  But the teaching shifted to an entirely different platform for which the majority of teachers were never trained.  We forced in-person teaching to turn on a dime (pardon the cliché) to teach virtually.  And some of the teachers did not even have the actual technology they needed to teach from a remote setting.

I could rant and rave about this issue even more because I know education personally having spent 35+ years in education, but I know each family knows what happened in education with the pandemic.  I know that the kiddos are suffering.  I know that the level of education with which we think or even expect our students to graduate has been severely damaged and will not be able to rebound even within a couple of years.

We have failed our students because we failed to teach them to learn, to take safe risks, and now to be resilient.  

We must teach our kids how to learn so when forced to step away from the classroom they can learn independently.  Teachers have long been forced to teach to tests and state standards; saddly we have forgotten the components on which we must build.

Maybe the pandemic will serve as a magnifying glass for our culture.  

Maybe we can stop and reassess the values that we have said we support, but failed.  

Maybe we can begin 2021 with a new mindset and go back to what our American values were just 244 years ago, when our founding fathers declared their independence and wrote a constitution that continues to be the backbone of our nation.

Therefore, to conclude, I am in quarantine with a mild case of COVID-19.  I do not feel guilty because I followed the recommendations.  I do not feel alienated because I tested positive.  But I do feel a responsibility to do all that I can for all I can in any way I can as we move into 2021.  I am Methodist after all, and John Wesley led his world to be healthy, to serve and to be the hands of feet of God.  It is one of our American values.

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December 5, 2020 · 8:41 am

Positive Twists COVID-19 Season

     The last seven months our comfortable American lifestyle has redefined itself.   The daily routines have shifted, schools are in crisis, economy erratic, families rattled–the list grows.

     Yet, there is an irony to the entire situation, and I pray that there are some dramatic shifts for the positive in our lifestyle that are and have been desperately needed.

     First and possibly most important, families are being forced to redefine their structure.  When the first mandates were put into place, schools closed.  Immediately, without any warning, families had to figure out how to manage the children at home.

     Certainly not every family unit had two parents working outside of the home, but many did.  Not every family had elementary kids who needed supervision at home.  But for many, the immediate decision had to be who was staying home.

     Then comes the next crisis:  how to teach all the students.  Maybe teaching elementary schools does not seem so daunting, but it is.  How one generation learned does not match the generation currently in school.  

     Add to that the teachers knew teaching as person-to-person.  In a weekend, the teachers had to transform into virtual teachers and nowhere in the college curriculum did education students learn about virtual teaching.

     Often in schools the technology teams were paid staff who installed, updated, and repaired all the district’s hardware.  Librarians were the other staff members who were often the more tech savvy in the district, but even now their job has been redefined by the need to substitute in a classroom or supervise lunch.  The library is not the first priority.

     As the months continue to roll along, families adapt and thankfully businesses do too.  A second positive developed–work at home became a viable option.  Productivity proved possible, and workers discovered that commute time became family time or productive work time.

     My brother’s work is a global company and there is some belief that the changes COVID has forced has rewritten many practices like travel, working meals, face-to-face sales calls, and even the office costs will be minimized.

     Speaking of commuting, consider the changes in driving.  Not only has commuting time and miles been dramatically reduced, COVID has lowered consumption of gas, oil, tires, and so on.  Not to mention the dramatic change in traveling for pleasure.

     That brings another major change to mind–the cost of entertainment.  Maybe the shift is really in priorities, which can be a positive considering how much emphasis and money has been spent on professional sports.

     In fact, COVID is forcing us to slow down and re-evalute our priorities.  Over the years, we have chosen to spend our money for making our lives comfortable, enjoyable, almost luxurious especially in relation to so many millions and millions of people.

     We have invested in entertainment with abandon.  We even choose to spend more money on sporting events than we tithe to the church.  We have chosen style over frugality.

     During this COVID season, I have discovered that I do not need to go shopping for clothes.  I do not need to take off for random weekend runs.  I do not need to the latest appliances.  I do not need . . . and the list continues to grow.

     What I have also learned is that I value my home much more.  I use the space more completely than I did before.  I take more pride in the yard and the small amount of vegetables I plant and harvest.  I look around and discover the fun I can have with what I do have.

     Oh, there are disappointments and losses that I can list, too.  But today, I want to see the positives that COVID has forced me to see.  I prefer looking at the good not the bad.  I see hope not despair.  I see God, not the evil.  I pray that others see the lessons we can learn and make changes that will improve the quality of our lives that will carry forward.

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May 17, 2020 · 7:13 pm

Surprising times challenge faith, Redefine today’s lifestyle, goals

How many times do we experience something in our lives and we cannot believe what just happened?  Maybe it was a near accident, maybe it was a health issue, maybe it was a work achievement.  Afterwards, we just walk away and marvel at the outcome.

Maybe we are in the midst of another amazing experience.  I know that the coronavirus has forced our daily lives to come grinding to a halt, wait a bit, and now we are trying to restart.  And that restarting process is almost more frightening than the shutdown has been.

None of us can predict what the future will look like, but one thing for sure it is will never be the same.  And I am not sure, but I am betting we have learned valuable lessons and should not even consider returning to life as usual.

As an observer, I am witnessing major lifestyle changes that I believe demonstrate a hunger for healthier balances in our priorities.  In my neighborhood, I watch families out walking together.  Not just one family, but a variety of families, some walking through the neighborhood just to add more steps in their walk.   I see pets with their owners that I never recognized before.  

Having been an at-risk teacher, I knew broken family units and the resulting damage more than I saw family units who supported one another in all types of endeavors.  Watching the family units join together for time outdoors without all the fanfare associated with sports is a heart-warming experience.

This pandemic is forcing family units to redefine themselves.  The stay-at-home orders have made the decision for many that society seemed to want but battled against due to the cultural expectations of two adults working away from the home while the kids were in school or in a day-care setting.

A spinoff adjustment has been to the work force.  Maybe the first evidence of needed/forced change was in education.  All the sudden schools closed their doors.  With many schools that literally closed down the school year after just three quarters, not the typical four.

This abrupt change not only forced the students to stay home, but it forced schools to rethink how to teach.  It placed the onus on the parents to see that their children continued in their studies while the teachers scrambled to find ways to provide instruction away from the classroom.

Education must place the needs of the students before anything else.  I will never forget attending an ASCD regional meeting and listening to the head of Iowa’s state education department.  Instead of worrying about how to hold teachers and districts accountable to a process or a set of standards, he said they had only one guideline:  What is best for the student?

Notice, it is student, not studentS.  Education as we know it is education for the masses.  If a student could not fit into the norm, then they failed.  If they were excelling and failing, they likely were bored with school and needed to accelerate rather than ‘fit into the norm.’  

The stay-at-home directive has shifted the methods of education to one-on-one instruction.  The Zoom meetings can be refined to individual tutorials or small groups or to a full class.  The younger students seem to be adapting well as they sit in front of the camera and talk one-to-one with the teacher.  They are learning.

And between the Zoom sessions, the parents are there tutoring the kids.  They are providing the encouragement, connecting with the teachers right alongside their children.  Many parents are learning their students interests and talents for the first time and discovering ways to enrich their educational experience on their own.

Granted, for many young people, the stay-at-home directive has had the complete opposite.  They are forced into a home where abuse, addictions, and hunger exist.  For these students, there is no education, there is only fear and danger.

How does our culture handle the pandemic crisis for these at-risk students?  These are the students who need the daily sanctuary of school so now is the time to redesign the educational system to meet the critical needs of the at-risk who cannot depend on a family structure to nurture them into adulthood.

Where does a society turn to find new direction?  

The pandemic protocols are forcing all institutions to reassess their basic foundational beliefs.  The hospitals are rewriting how they treat patients–and they are treating them in solitude without the very critical emotional support of family and friends. 

Business are learning that work can be more productive if workers are at home, away from the office.  Work weeks are being redefined by work production.  Priorities are readjusted to support the families with children in the home.

Hopefully businesses are learning that the almighty dollar is no longer the guiding principle.  Now the guiding principle is protecting the human assets of the company.  Valuing the employees above the profit margin will lead to a healthier society.

Our society was at-risk when the coronavirus started its race around the world.  Our sense of elitism blinded us to the reality and the risks that were stretching across the oceans to reach us.  We were so busy finding the easiest way to amass wealth.  We were sacrificing the foundational principles that created our culture.

The one constant in my life, and I expect in many lives is my faith.  I know that the history of mankind has experienced pandemics before.  I know that change is a guarantee.  But as I have lived, experienced, and studied history, the one common thread throughout all cultures is faith.

My faith system is based on the principles of Jesus Christ who as the son of man and the son of God walked among the human race demonstrating and teaching how to live in harmony with one another.

One simple rule:  Love on another as we want to be loved.

Now, in the midst of stay-at-home directives, of social distancing, of economic crisis, this one principle can guide us through the storm.  Love one another as you want to be loved.

True, the sudden changes in our society even affect the way we do church.  We cannot open the sanctuaries to host a worship service in the same manner we were accustomed to doing.  We cannot sing our hymns together; now we must don a mask.  We cannot pass the communion cup or break off a piece from the main loaf of bread.  We cannot find our favorite seat next a dear friend.  

What the church can do is to teach, to worship, to serve one another in any way that it can so all may know Jesus.  We can give whatever we can to assure that others have the basic necessities in life–food, clothing and shelter.  We can reach out to one another through phone calls, hand-written notes, texts, emails, or any other viral means of communication.

We do not know what tomorrow will look like, but I am confident that with faith in God and in living the life Jesus modeled for us, we will discover that life does not have to be what always has been.  We will find that being the church is doing all the good we can in any way we can for whomever we can, whenever we can.

Let’s keep the focus on the positives this pandemic can provide.  Let’s follow the recommendations of the scientists, the specialists, and the doctors.  Let’s allow families to be families first.  Let’s redesign our world so put God first, then we put loving one another like we want to be loved.

Schools will continue, but education will be different.  

Businesses will continue, but the design and the workforce will be different.

Government will remember that it is for the people and by the people.

And churches will be an active force meeting the needs of one another through one principle:  Love one another as you want to be loved.  

Let’s leave the past in the past and surge forward to a new and better world.

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April 5, 2020 · 8:55 pm

Life during the pandemic: The pain of it all hits home But look at all the good, too

     Today is Palm Sunday.  And today I will sit in my living room and watch the service on Facebook.  I will be watching the work of our tech team, our pastor, our music team, and myself.  

     We worked this week, reporting to the sanctuary at different times, to video tape all the elements of the service to be pieced together and posted to our Facebook page this morning–scheduled to air at 9:30 AM.  

     We had to cancel the order for the palms that traditionally are handed out during the service, added to the kids’ time, and laid on the altar.  Not using them this year.  Granted there are several pastors and churches and craft-lovers who are finding dozens of ways to share the palms in new and different ways, but the pandemic protocols has taken away the traditions, the normalcy, the human touch. 

     There is pain in these days.  We are feeling the emotional pain of change.  We are feeling the numbing sense of loneliness.  We are feeling disheveled without the usual daily routines–not to mention the fear of even being infected by COVID-19.

      But as real as the pain is during this insanity, there are so many new and exciting experiences, changes, and inventions developing as a direct result of the forced restrictions in our lives.

     First, look at what is happening to our churches, switching almost instantly to streaming worship services through Facebook, the YouTube channel, or their own web pages.  The skills were not already in place for many, but we learn and grow.

     Second, schools suddenly lost the classrooms.  Teachers cannot depend on the one-on-one contact in person, now they are learning how to use the virtual resources to do the same thing.  This is probably more difficult for the elementary teachers, but I remember how I needed help with high school math.  Losing the contact with the teachers is forcing educators to rethink virtually every facet of teaching.

     Consider our family structures, too.  Our culture finds households dependent on two incomes, we encourage mothers to be professionals in the work force.  This has led our society to step away from the core family roles.  Now families are forced to restructure what their daily family life is, especially since so many have been sent home to work or forcing them into unemployment.

     The list grows of all the ways the pandemic is forcing us to create new ways to manage our lives.  Oddly enough, there is so much good that is developing from this crisis.

     Sadly, the forced changes do create pain.  Yesterday I felt that pain personally.  As our state shut down, I had to make a decision.  I had to decide whether I could do something I felt passionate about doing to support my own family, or whether I had to close the door and become one step more isolated.

     I am amazed how a virus can spread completely around the globe and affect me so personally even when I still have no contact with someone infected or have no health issues.  

     My roles clash–wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, and pastor–when decisions have to be made under these conditions.  It is personally painful today; but I am part of a community that has grown from the 1970s rural world of family farms to a global community where influences from the farthest reaches of the globe can be delivered right to your own door.

     This morning, after hours of tears and misery from submitting to another restriction separating me from the very grandmother, teacher role I loved, I have gotten up, fed the pets, taken a shower and dressed for a full day–makeup and hair, too.  The weather has improved, the trees are leafing out, and it is a new day.

     In a few moments, I will switch over from the news, open Facebook on the smart TV, and join in Palm Sunday worship.  The good is winning over the pain.  The changes are going to force new normal patterns in our life.  We witness the outpouring of love as our communities rally to support one another through the drive-by parades, the chalk talk on the walks, and the list grows.  

     The pandemic restrictions may be in place, but I believe the good will erase the pain. 

Please join me in prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

We may be in a winter of our human history,

But we are in the spring of your glorious world.

Let us look forward to the new world

As we struggle to manage under the virus.

Help us to see how we are all suffering 

And know we are never alone.

Thank you for strengthening our resolve,

For sharing in our pain,

For opening our mind to new ideas,

And for our family and friends

doing all they can to comfort and care for us.

Help us with our patience as this season passes

And a new season erupts before us.

Help us to join in the new and push aside the old.

Let us carry forth the lessons we learn

So the future remains welcoming and exciting.

We can do this with all the grace and mercy

You show us as modeled by your son Jesus Christ,

It is in your name, God our Father,

And in your son’s name, Jesus Christ,

And through the Holy Spirit, we pray.  Amen.

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March 21, 2020 · 6:46 pm

Guess What I Saw!

Today is truly spring, and yesterday I discovered it at a time I really needed to find a breath of fresh air:

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I did not plant this jonquil here.  It is actually coming up with some wild onion that I have had before and cannot seem to get rid of.  

So I was genuinely surprised to discover this flower blooming in the midst of the cedar mulch under the deck. 

I needed this harbinger of spring because earlier that morning I had made the trek to Walmart in order to get my usual supplies.  I knew there were issues with stocking, but still what I found was a shock.  

There was no cereal except for less than a case of a couple of brands.  Only one box or two of instant oatmeal.

There was no rice!

There were very few cans of vegetables.

There was no toilet paper as I had heard and discovered from other outings the weekend before.

Finding items was a challenge because not only is our local Walmart managing the pandemic, it is also going through a major remodel, so everything is everywhere.

I left shaken.  

Throughout history humanity has faced crisis; we are not different.  And there really is no reason we should feel protected from a global pandemic as the world comes right into our homes if by no other means than videos. 

Then today, we took a long drive down to Truman Lake because it was sunny and pleasant.  We would not interact with other people just by taking a drive, so why not?

The fishermen were still out on their boats despite the near freezing temperatures.  The Sonic was delivering meals to the car windows as always.  And there were cars, well more pickups and SUVs, on the road.

The small towns were ironically the same as they always appear.  Even the little mom & pop restaurants seemed to be doing their normal lunch hour business.  I almost felt like we were outside of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) parameters.

We all need to look for the little reminders that God’s world is filled with his glory.  We need to see all the spring flowers popping out from the mud and grime of the wet, cold winter.  We need to see the families outside in their yards–together.  We need to hear the peepers as they announce spring.

And we all must realize that humanity is going to continue even though the going is extremely trying right now.

We must return to God’s scriptures and the story of how he joined us on earth as Jesus Christ, son of man and son of God.  

Easter may not be what we expect this year.  There may not be any worship service to attend.  The Easter outfits may not get to be worn on April 12 as planned.  The Easter Bunny may have to wait a bit before families and friends can get together.

But the good news is that God is good all the time and all the time God is good.  We just need to look for the good.  We need to hear how all the communities are finding new and inventive ways to love one another.  We need to consider what we can do, too.  

This Sunday, March 22, and the coming Sundays our churches are joining forces to fill the social media with church services.  There may be more people “in church” this week than ever before thanks to the technology and the social media that has developed.

Sharing the good news will be a breath of fresh air along the airwaves right alongside the news broadcasts.  Share with others in any way that you can the story of Jesus Christ.

Open up the computers, the tablets, the cell phones, and even the smart TVs and find the worship service of your own church or maybe someone else’s.  You can visit as many as you want this week and during the coming weeks.

I think the on-line church service and devotionals is much like finding the jonquil blooming in the most unexpected place in my yard.  May the services open up your heart and you experience the renewal of faith this first spring Sunday.

Please join me in prayer:

Dear God, 

Thank you for the gift of spring.

Be with your children around this world

     struggling with the angst filling today’s world.

Let us join together in worship

     in any way we can, wherever we can

     so we may experience 

     the joy of Christian community.

Guide us as we continue to move forward

     through these uncertain times.

     heal those who are sick;

     protect those who rush to their aid;

     and show us new and wonderful ways

     of loving one another 

     so all may experience the transformation 

     that comes when we accept Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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March 12, 2020 · 9:09 am

Living in midst of pandemonium

Our pastor’s Lenten series is titled “Confronting Evil” and each week he covers a specific topic.  First was bitterness, then betrayal, and third cynicism.  

As we experience the flood of information and the dramatic changes that the coronavirus has created, I am realizing how those individual topics can be translated into this very experience.

Though I have not experienced the virus yet, nor know anyone personally who has, I have to admit that I could understand that this virus is a 21st century evil–or at least can spiral us into a mindset that stirs up the very characteristics we might identify as un-Christian responses.

This week the series subtitle is “Putting Satan behind You.”  We cannot put the temptations or the emotions behind us in dealing with evil, we must address it.  We live in community, not isolation, therefore we confront a wide range of evils.

Using the Wesley Study Bible, I often read the sidebars.  Today as I read about Jesus confronting Satan during his 40 days in the wilderness, I noticed that one of Wesley’s core terms is ‘temptation’:

“. . . Wesley knew that temptation more often comes to us in subtle ways.  Our bodies are frail and subject to pain, which inevitably brings temptation.  The human environment in which we dwell is also a wellspring of temptation, and our character is constantly being formed and reformed by the influences, both moral and immoral, around us.  Sadly, believers who fall 

short of perfect love are also a source of temptation, for they are still in the grip of inward sin.  Their pride, jealousy, and other “unholy tempers” can provoke the same tempers in others. . . “(p. 1166)

As I read through this explanation, I realized that right now, today, in the midst of the global battle against a virus, we confront evil in how we manage even this event.  

As we confront the virus, be alert to the emotions that we must manage:  bitterness, betrayal, and cynicism.  We are humans who must rely on God even in the midst of a pandemic.

I close with verse 10 from Matthew 4:1-11 reading:

“Away with you Satan! for it is written,

     ‘Worship the Lord your God,

          And serve only him.’”

Even Jesus had to confront evil, but he lead by example and we should follow his model.  Let’s face the reality of a pandemic, but rely on God.  Serve one another in love in all the ways that you can following all the medical advice that you can.

Dear God,

Heal our bodies, minds, and souls

so we can fend off evil

and love one another

 with total abandon.   Amen.

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