social distancing

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My Story Just Might Be Your Story Too

I’ve been thinking today that maybe my story is the same as your story.

My story just might be your story too

I’ve noticed something about myself over the last several months, and I can honestly say I don’t like it. I wonder if there are others who feel the same. 

There are significant changes that I’ve seen since we first started isolating and social distancing. I’ve also noticed that some things have fallen through the cracks.

I worked hard at maintaining my work effort and, in many ways, had to learn new skills to do it. I’ve had to find new ways to connect, new ways to meet, new ways to communicate. 

… And that has taken lots of time and effort. 

I guess I can be satisfied with what I’ve accomplished and provided so far for my congregation during this time. 

But there is something that I’ve really failed at. I’ve even made excuses for it. I’ve justified my failure and even have taken comfort in it. 

It’s possible that I’m not the only one and that you, to some degree, have failed in the same way I have.

Even great people who we look up to still have failure in their lives – the business guru who has built companies and made fortunes but has failed as a husband and father; the talented athlete who has conquered his or her sport but failed personally; the musician who has garnered the fame and awe of millions but become consumed by alcohol and drugs. 

They all had aspects of great success, but also great failure. 

I’ve been thinking about my failure during this time of isolation. I’ve been okay with it too because I need a break, an outlet. I need some kind of escape from all the effort I’m directing to new things. 

Do you see this in yourself as well?

My story, my area of failure is in my personal disciplines. Over the last five months, I’ve eaten way too much of the wrong things and put aside consistent exercise.

The crazy thing is that if I had not failed in this area I would have been better prepared to handle all the new things I’ve had to do.

In the spring when the weather wasn’t so great, my home gym got dusty. I just felt too drained each day to use my equipment in any kind of a consistent way. Even when the weather turned warm, I had excuses for not getting out there to mountain bike or play golf regularly.

I’ve looked for comfort food to easy the burden of the new work I’ve taken on … and comfort food for me is junk food and candy. I’ve told myself I deserve the break, but I’ve been too tired to break what has become a pattern for me. 

I know what I need to do, and that is to break the pattern, fight off the weariness and get back to my discipline.

This is my story and it’s not going to be easy to change – like going against gravity – but I need to do it … and maybe you need to do it too.

Here’s the thing: Maybe you’ve slacked off spiritually as well. Is it possible that you had questions about God, things you wanted to investigate, but haven’t moved on to finding answers? Maybe you have been lazy in spending time with God. Maybe God’s taken a back seat over the last several months. It’s time to break the pattern and go against gravity. Work at that spiritual part of your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What disciplines are you going to get back to? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Your Perception Of Isolation May Be Wrong

Isolation and social distancing can give the perception that contact and connection is lost.

Your Perception of Isolation May be Wrong

We fear a loss of contact and connection during this pandemic. As a pastor, a big concern of mine is that people – especially those who are more vulnerable – will feel forgotten and alone.

During this time when contact is our enemy, we want to find ways to ease the loneliness. 

I remember playing dodge ball as a kid. There were only a few rules to the game and the bottom line was if the ball made contact with you, you were out. That was it; there was no second chance. It was harsh and you sat on the sideline until a new game began. 

It also meant you had to be in good shape to stay in the game. You had to move and dodge (hence the name of the game) to avoid getting hit. The people who were the most agile, the most flexible, could jump the highest and duck the lowest were the ones who would win the game. 

But as I got older, the rules of the game changed. 

The ball could actually make contact but only if you were holding another ball and it hit that ball and not your body. Then you were safe. Also, if a ball came whizzing towards you and you caught it, you were still in the game even though there was contact made.

The game had evolved to allow some contact under certain conditions to a game that was all about no contact. The changes increased the length of the games and kept more people in the game longer. It was actually pretty good.

So this game, known for its no-contact rule, actually added a whole lot of contact. 

This past week two groups in the city that work with seniors reached out to me. They wanted to bless the seniors in our church by giving them a gift of sorts. Their problem was that they had no means of either contacting random seniors or of distributing the gifts.

Their solution was to use the churches, so our church received a number of gifts from them intended for our seniors.

My problem was that most of our more vulnerable seniors have been avoiding contact during this pandemic and are not yet coming out to church services, so I would need to find a way to distribute all these gifts.

The only thing I could think of was asking our congregation if they would help deliver the gifts to our seniors. 

At church and through our livestream, we asked for volunteers to help deliver these gift packets. It was amazing how many people stepped up to make contact and connect with those who are experiencing isolation and social distancing to a greater degree. 

In the midst of the isolation and social distancing, there is far more contact and connecting happening than we perceive. 

… And as a pastor, it is so encouraging to see!

Here’s the thing: If you are feeling isolated, if you are lacking contact and are feeling forgotten and lonely, God is trying to make contact with you right now. He wants you to know He is with you. Give Him the opportunity to bring you His love and forgiveness. Reach back to Him and connect with God in a personal way through Christ. The perception may be that you are alone but there is a lot more contact and connection right around you than you realize.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What can you do to make contact with someone today? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Anticipation Is Making Me Late, And Keeping Me Waiting

Anticipation is a great motivator and will help you plow through something you don’t really want to do. 

Anticipation is making me late and keeping me waiting

Though sometimes anticipation can make time seem to go really fast because you are so focussed on it, usually anticipation makes time seem to go very slowly.

It all depends on what you have to do before you get to what you are anticipating.

As a kid, I remember Christmas morning being something I anticipated for weeks in advance. But let me tell you, Christmas Eve seemed to last forever, like time was standing still.

The word itself reminds me of a Carly Simon hit song from 1971. The chorus went like this: “Anticipation is making me late, it’s keeping me waiting.”

It’s like that for me today. 

I’m anticipating going for my first mountain bike ride of the year at my local mountain bike club. 

But before I get there, before I even make sure my tires are pumped and my gears are shifting smoothly, I have to get a few things done, including finishing writing this blog post. 

While I’m sitting in my family room, staring at my iPad, with a keyboard on my lap, I’m really visualizing the course out at the farm.

It looks so different depending on when you ride. Early in the spring when the leaves are still not fully developed, it is brighter and you can see more of the terrain around the path.

In a week or two, the leaves will provide shade to ride under and the path will appear to be all that is highlighted. 

Later in the fall, with brown leaves all around, it will be difficult to even see the path underneath.

With our new social isolation measures, there will be rules to follow, even though most of the time when I bike, though there are over 1000 members, I rarely come across other bikers. And when I do, it is only for a flash, as I glide past them or they whisk by me. 

As long as the trees can’t get COVID, I will be safe from potentially getting the virus on the mountain biking trails. It’s just getting to them that’s the issue. 

And the more I think about riding, the more I anticipate it and that is making me late, keeping me waiting.

As painful as it might be for me right now, if we never anticipated anything, we wouldn’t make plans. We wouldn’t get excited about what is coming up. We wouldn’t dream about what is to come. 

When I was a youth pastor and my junior high girls were anticipating a week at summer camp, or a weekend retreat, they would jump up and down wth big grins on their faces, saying things like, “just 6 more sleeps!”

Anticipation is a good thing. Sometimes we think it’s killing us but it really keeps us going. It motivates us like it is motivating me to finish writing this post.

Here’s the thing: I don’t think we anticipate being with God in heaven all that much. If we did we would have a very different outlook and response to the world around us. We would be less caught up in solving the issues of the day and more concerned with how to best leverage the present circumstances to bring about Christ’s return and our eternity in heaven. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How would anticipating being in heaven change your present mindset and actions during this time? Leave your comments and questions below.  

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A Tale Of Contradictions

We are all supposed to practice social distancing right now, but there are lots of contradictions.

A Tale of Contradictions

The other day I needed something from a store … well, maybe “need” is too strong a word.

I’d ordered a part to help me livestream online, but when it was delivered I discovered that it didn’t come with a power source.

Do you remember commercials for kids’ toys years ago? At the end of the commercials the announcer would say, “batteries not included”. Well, it turns out I ordered a product like that. It ran on DC current or rechargeable batteries but came with neither.

I headed straight for a store that sold both.

The store was practicing social distancing – which I completely understood – but there were obvious contradictions. 

I was first asked to stand in a line outside the store, marked with tape every six feet. 

I happened to be the only one in the line and, judging by the number of cars in the lot, there were probably only about ten customers in the store. 

In front of me was a store employee, standing a good six feet from me. He informed me how my shopping experience was going to go.

First there would be no cash, no paper receipts and, when I did enter the store, I would have an advisor who would assist me with my shopping. 

Okay, that was fine. 

The employee asked me what I was looking for and when I told him, I got the impression that what I wanted wasn’t really worth his effort. 

He said the two employees in the store that could help me were both busy with customers, so I would have to wait. 

In the mean time, he asked me for details about what I wanted. When I told him I needed a battery, he looked it up on his phone and promptly exclaimed they did not have that battery in the store.  

Unfazed, I replied, “Then I need a power adapter.”  

He wanted to know more about the adaptor so I pulled out the user guide and read the specifications to him. 

He apparently didn’t believe me, so he entered my six-foot bubble and asked if he could have the guide. He gave it back after he’d touched it with both his hands.

Armed with information, he went inside the store and several minutes later emerged with a box and another employee.

This other employee also got inside the six-foot perimeter to ask me more questions. He also touched my guide and had his hands all over the product they brought out to me. 

Once I decided to purchase the adaptor – and the possible accompanying coronavirus all over it – we went inside the store to complete the purchase. 

I decided to pay with my watch since I wouldn’t have to touch anything. It worked perfectly. 

I was told they were going to email me the receipt – perfect! But I had to agree to that by selecting “yes” on the key pad – crazy! I couldn’t do that without touching the screen with my finger or picking up the attached pen to select “yes”. 

Are you kidding me? How many others had touched those things? 

Their measures were strict but not consistent. Their contradictions made me want to wash my hands immediately … but there was no sanitizer anywhere!

Here’s the thing: We can find contradictions everywhere in life. We contradict ourselves when we say people need to be tolerant, but then we are intolerant of those who don’t agree with us. We can’t get away from contradictions. But God never contradicts Himself. When you align your life with Him, you can be sure you won’t be disappointed. 

That’s Life! 

Paul

Question: What’s a contradiction that has bugged you lately? Leave your comments and questions below.