How I've Adapted to the Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has exacted a grim toll on the world in general, and on the United States specifically.  Over 250,000 have died from this virus during this year in our country.  Businesses have struggled; some have closed their doors, perhaps never to open again.  Millions unexpectedly have found themselves unemployed or underemployed, while others found their jobs suddenly described as essential, and as a consequence, worked harder in a more highly stress charged environment than before.  Doctors and nurses literally have risked their lives trying to save others.  This crisis has been compounded by the subtraction of some normal means of coping and encouraging one another.  Schools have met virtually; churches have done the same.  Funeral assemblies have been restricted to immediate families in many places, removing the comforting care of a community of friends and extended family. 

I love meeting together with fellow Christians to sing praises to God, to share communion, to pray, to hear the word of God read and discussed. My monthly activities included preachers meetings and American Legion activities.  These have morphed into Zoom or YouTube experiences.  Hugs and handshakes have disappeared. Both my surviving adult children live more than four hours away and extended family members live even farther away. Modified coping experiences were required.

First, my wife and I have sung together at home more.  She and I have watched more documentaries and Hallmark movies.  Zoom meetings for me and Zoom graduate school classes for her have provided some give and take with the outside world.  I put my job search on hold until she graduates in May.  I've learned how to bake communion bread. We have worn masks when out in public in crowds. We have practiced social distancing. We have worshiped online, which is sadly not sufficient, but still somewhat helpful.

Second,  I blew past my goal of reading sixty books this year.  I've read a mixture of scholarly theology and history tomes, best selling and classic novels, poetry, books on sports, homiletics, and political science, and all the big books of the Outlander series.  I have reviewed some of these books on this site. I've also finished reading the New International Version 2011 edition of the Bible for the first time and am reading it again (I have read through nine or so other translations over the past fifty years since I first read through the King James Version at age 12).  I've read books on civil rights and racism.  I've read biographies.  Some books have encouraged me. Others have depressed me.  Most have made me think and evaluate others' perspectives on life.

Third, I've served an American Legion post as its chaplain remotely, praying on Zoom and making telephone calls to members.  I spoke about lessons learned from a book I had reading, Preaching in the Shadow of Hitler, to a group of Kansas City preachers in November.

Fourth, I have continued to write, although it has been a struggle at times.  Writing my blog on prayer (https://callforfireseminar.wordpress.com) have deepened my faith and understanding of prayer. Expanding the scope of this blog has given me the opportunity to explore more means of encouraging one another.

Fifth, and most consistently, perhaps most unexpectedly, I have exercised.  Pandemic related regulations in my area have allowed exercise outdoors with precaution and I have taken advantage of that permission. I expanded from just walking several times a week to walking, running, and bicycling (with elliptical on bad weather days) during the pandemic. I had not run for more than three years (despite doing so regularly for the previous twenty-four). Prayer remained constant. 

How has your religious practice changed during 2020? How has that effected the depth of your faith? Has your mental or emotional health been challenged this year? What difficulties have you confronted in maintaining ties with family and friends? How has your fitness regimen changed during this time of  quarantines, isolation, and restricted assembly?  Have you adapted your routines because of the crisis or have you ignored warnings and pressed on with your usual activities?  What has given you great joy during a year that has witnessed a varied of unusual happenings?  What will you miss most after 2020?

The words of Isaiah 40 have continued to anchor me during this strange year.  I still remember that "those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Isaiah 40:31 NIV2011).

 

During the last weeks of hurricane season, I inadvertently read this engaging novel, Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward,  about a family of teenagers in Louisiana in 2005 who themselves are in the path of what will become Hurricane Katrina. The primary spokesperson for the family, to the reader at least, is the only girl in the family, Esch, a 14- or 15-year-old, who along with her siblings struggles with ethical and moral decisions ranging from dog fighting to stealing to learning that she's pregnant to dealing with an alcohol-impaired widowed father to keeping afloat in school to figuring out whom to trust and love.  The title of the book has more to do with surviving than dog fighting. Her brothers individually deal with trying to keep an opportunity for an athletic scholarship alive, breeding and fighting and cherishing dogs, and themselves navigating emotional relationship boundaries with friends and siblings. I suspected when I began that this might be a quickly read YA novel, but then the narrative quickly lurched into serious adult, survival related themes that teens without adequate adult supervision confront in a life-threatening environment (gangs, drugs, imminent Category 5 hurricane environment) in a decrepit house as they battle for survival, values formation, and identity.  The pace of the narrative began at a too leisurely pace, but picked up and the last section, for me at least, was riveting.  The characters speak in a dialect that sometimes was a little hard to follow and use language that sometimes is course and profane. I've had considerable training and some experience in hurricane preparation and response strategies; the challenges for the family and their community struck me as quite realistic, as did their responses to those challenges. Religion is less of an influential factor for this family than peer pressure, economic status, and family traditions.  Friends and compassionate strangers can form community that makes survival possible during harrowing experiences. At times while reading the book, I wanted to throw up my hands and shout, "Can't you see that you're hurting yourself (or your father or your brother or your daughter or your sister) with that choice of action or words?" In the end, potential light at the end of the tunnel flickers for the reader, who is unsure whether the characters will see that light or not. 

  Life can be very hard.  Having trustworthy friends and mentors can help us navigate treacherous situations.  Having a community who loves and respects each of us makes it possible to survive in more healthy ways.  This book doesn't deal directly with it, but a church should be that kind of community, especially when it seeks to follow a Lord who urged that loving God and loving your neighbor are the two greatest command.

Keeping Focused on Christ When Our World Falls Apart

 

Unworthy Republic was written by Claudio Saunt, a professor of American History at the University of Georgia. It is about the government Indian Removal of 1820s through 1840s. Saunt addresses Georgia and that state's advocacy and execution of the policy, but also discusses in depth Indian 

Removal in Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, as well as the arduous journeys experienced by the various tribes as they moved (or more often were moved) to new lands in Oklahoma and Kansas. Saunt introduces key characters on both sides of the issue and reveals the impact of the policy on each of their lives. Among the main characters, I enjoyed learning more about John Ross of the Cherokee, since I once lived on John Ross Road near Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's an account of broken treaties and includes how and why a state government decided to ignore a Supreme Court verdict. Indian leaders like Osceola and Black Hawk reacted to the policy with aggressive, militant resistance; John Ross used the American legal system to argue the Cherokees' and other tribes' cases. These leaders agreed in resisting orders to abandon properties and possessions to move to another part of the continent. They each encountered opposition within their own tribes from other leaders who believed that the most beneficial course would be to comply.  Dr. Saunt recounts the experiences of those who left their homes as well as those who resisted. The atrocities that Saunt recounts may cause you to reconsider the concept of Manifest Destiny and perhaps reevaluate your list of our nation's best Presidents. 

What do the The Trail of Tears and the U. S.- Seminole War have to do with comforting people? This book is not about Christian discipleship or leadership, but I discerned principles from the accounts recorded in it. First, the Indians who responded to a confusing and terrifying change in American government policy towards them often listened to spiritual leaders as they searched for answers.  Many had converted to Christianity. Their preachers spoke to the crisis. In their letters to the President and other government leaders, Indians appealed to biblical principles, and also to key American historical values derived from the Bible's teaching and set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Second, they responded as a community. Leaders like John Ross led by consensus.  They were not loners; they helped one another (although there were Indians who took advantage of others misfortune).  Although some committed suicide, others survived because friends and family reached out to help them.  Bible uses metaphors like family and body to describe followers of Christ as a collective group. Third, this book reminds us that institutions that we support and hold dear may disappoint or even horrify us at times.  When they do, the human toll can break our hearts and challenge us to rethink our worldview, the principles by which we live our lives. Unworthy Republic introduces flawed heroes and principled villains.  Cherokee Chief John Ross was a slaveowner.  The politicians and bureaucrats who led the Indian Removal included people who kept meticulous records and worried about the welfare of the uprooted Indian families, even if they did not contest the policy itself. Soldiers questioned their commanders when ordered to commit inhumane actions. Even when everyone around us chooses to do evil, each of us can choose to do right.  Even our world falls apart, we can survive.  

I love to study history.  I did not enjoy at all some of what I learned from this book. People for whom cities, counties, corporations, and universities are named are revealed at their worst.  Other leaders disappoint, but then seem to have awakened to the horror of what they had backed.  As I read the book, I noticed disturbing parallels in attitudes between the 1830s and 2020. If we seek to follow Christ, we must govern our actions and attitudes with a disciplined love that keeps promises and seeks the best for others. Life is not easy. Each of us confront moments of ethical challenge in our lives. May we keep focus on Christ and what it means to follow him in such moments.  

When Worlds Fall Apart: Cloud Atlas and 2020

  Justice may seem impossible to achieve.  Friends, employers, or even family members may betray us. The world may seem (and in 2020, it does, doesn't it?)  as if it is imploding because of violence, hurricanes, pandemics, and murder hornets.

Reading the book Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell reminded me that everything I read doesn't have to leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling or even be consistent with my world view to benefit me. When I had finished about half of Cloud Atlas, I was disturbed deeply but aware that I dare not cease reading. Mitchell weaves together six narratives in this novel that spans several millennia (the movie based on the book apparently squeezes it into five hundred years but given the religious evolution, I think the book requires more time to elapse between two of the narratives) linking primary characters in unexpected ways. Observations on what it means to be human and civilized emerge, as well reflection on the probable transience of what we think permanent. Some characters are disgusting, others tragic, and from both sets emerge heroes and antiheroes. I wondered, based on artifacts discovered in the earliest story and treasured family records in the latest, if there might be a circular time twist, but no one else whose review I read seems to have noticed such, so that probably is not so. 

I'm better for having read this book, not because I believe in transmigration of souls or reincarnation (I don't), but because subtle undertones in each narrative suggest resilience of humans against greed and bullying (even at the macro national level).  Concern for the vulnerable and the oppressed emerges in several threads.  The indigenous native, the ethnic minority, the elderly, economic slaves, and religious faithful find advocates when they are threatened or abused.  Abuse of natural resources, violation of cultural artifacts and intellectual property rights are addressed in ways that stress a concern for others who share our environment. Religious leaders and executives of large corporations are among the villains. But despite the fact that powerful evil people lurk in each narrative, hope persists (with one notable exception and even that has a caveat) and someone finds a way to do the right thing, make provision for success, or improbably just survives. The importance of seeking to help others is revealed by a statement near the end of the book, "In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction" (p 508). 

 Groups of people express bigotry towards other groups or individuals and seek to kill them in several threads of this book. Such hatred has existed in history, and endures today. In American history, the relocation of settled, land-owning Native Americans in the 1830s, the treatment of African Americans during and since slavery, and the imprisonment in concentration camps of innocent Japanese-American citizens during WWII are among the horrors that people in power imposed upon more vulnerable populations. Conversations regarding the value of black and immigrant lives, attacks on Sikh, Jewish, and Christian places of worship in America, and harassment of women and physically/mentally challenged people remind us that we still have a ways to go in maturing as people and a society. Injustice does not exist solely in the realm of fiction.

 As I reflected on this book, I thought about the prophet Habakkuk.  His world was falling apart. He called to God for rescue.  God told him that he (God) had set the process in motion to bring about justice and a return to righteousness.  Habakkuk realizes his people's desperate straits, but also his God's power. And he concludes,

"I heard and my heart pounded; my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Thought the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior" (Habakkuk 3:16-18 NIV 2011).

  Injustice and evil abound.  But God is, and because he is, good abounds as well.  Let us remember to choose to do good, and to love others as we love ourselves. Then, whatever befall, we will know that however bad it may be, good may still conquer, even though all may seem lost. Let's choose to keep living, and to help others do the same.

The Way of the Cross for Families

 

Russell Moore writes in his book The Storm Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home with humble self-disclosure from experience in ministry and as a member of family, both physical and spiritual. He mixes both bittersweet and humorous anecdotes with serious reflections on the meaning of life and scripture. Family carries varying shadows and supports for each of us. Moore reveals how burdens of family responsibility may bring blessing and how tragedy may bear the seeds for hope. He has an aversion to baptism that he never really explains, but otherwise I found this book moving and helpful. I recommend it to you.

The theme of the cross reshaping the storm-tossed family struck a chord with me.  The pressures that culture, peers, and extended family exert upon our choices threaten the influence of religious beliefs in our decision-making processes.  The letter of 1 Peter in the New Testament discusses at length how Christians are to follow the example of Jesus, specifically in suffering. Most of us would prefer to avoid suffering, I suspect, but achieving success in furthering significant causes may demand it.  Serving as a soldier exposes one to potential maiming or loss of life.  Military service and sports participation often require placing personal preferences second to what is best for the team.  This too is true for the Christian as member of a family whether that family is his spouse and children or the church.  We submit our desires to the needs of other family members.  Love sometimes requires difficult, seemingly impossible decisions.  When repeated abuse and habitual, unrepentant betrayal mar the home atmosphere, the Christian's choice will be one that benefits the family as a whole. Separation or divorce may be necessary to protect not only personal safety, but to ensure the welfare of children, and to motivate the offender toward reform or seeking healing of what causes the violence or addictive behavior. Patience, commitment (keeping promises), and love prompt the Christian to seek what will be best.  That may not always be easy to discern. One of my children had health problems that other family members sometimes dismissed as minor or even attention-seeking devices.  That child died in his twenties; his health problem had caused lethal damage despite our attempts to seek treatment that would heal him.  

Seek the salvation of your family, but seek to improve their physical and emotional health as well. Pursue a lifestyle that improves health and affirms the value of life. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, and his way is the path to salvation for you and those whom you love. If your family is rocked by conflict, betrayal, or harmful impact from personal choices,  seek help from strong, trustworthy advisors who will affirm your faith in Christ while protecting your safety.  The way of the cross is not easy, but is the way to love.

Just Mercy

 

  Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy recounts his career as a civil rights lawyer.  He reviews several cases as well as some of his personal experiences outside the courtroom, weaving them within an overarching review of one particularly riveting case.  The "just" in the title has to do with justice.  Stevenson writes a compelling narrative that took on added significance for me against the backdrop of 2020's protests of alleged murders of unarmed black men and women by police and white vigilantes.

  This powerful history deserves a careful and complete reading. Some of the wisest and most powerfully redemptive passages are within the last twenty pages of the book. They cannot be appreciated fully, however, without reading what goes before, however painful that may be for whatever reason. I worked for several years as a corrections counselor; a son of mine is a guard at a state prison. I met people who seemed thoroughly evil. Some were prisoners. I met others whose convictions would later be overturned because they were innocent. Those experiences gave me some context for reading this book. People who are victims or vulnerable often need advocates, whether legal ones like Stevenson or people who speak up or intervene when they see injustice. A sobering moment in the book is when a church refrains from supporting a falsely accused member because he has had an imperfect past. Read this book and ask yourself, as I did, how you may be a "stonecatcher."

Taking Time to See God's Love

 As I walked the other day, I passed a bird resting beside a man-made pond.  Reflecting on God's power to console comes easier in such surroundings. At least it does for me.  I encourage you, if you are able, to spend time outside among trees near water observing wildlife and remembering the God that created you and what you see. Thank God for giving you life and surrounding you with this evidence of  his love.  When we mourn the lost of loved ones or chafe because we have lost freedom to travel or associate, our frustration may threaten to drown out reminders of God's grace and provision.

The Value of Black Lives

When police officers have killed unarmed Americans recently, the fact that many of those were black prompted an outcry of "black lives matter."  Others responded, as if saying that "black lives matter" meant that other lives didn't, that "all lives matter."  The point of the first protesters was and is that sometimes it seems as if all lives (and especially black lives) don't matter.  Others countered the outcry by denouncing it since many more die each day as a result of abortion.  Still others have refused to take seriously the concepts of "systemic racism" or "white privilege." Such, it seems, has not been their experience.  Since only God can read hearts and it would be impossible to track every human action or speech directed toward others, an assertion that "more babies are murdered every day than existential racism is practiced" is only a guess. It could also be asserted that the reverse is true. We don't know. Killing babies before birth is barbaric. Tolerating the death of the elderly in nursing homes or the killing of unarmed people by law enforcement officers or the military is equally tragic. Let's advocate the practice of love and justice while refraining from pitting one sin against another in terms of seriousness. Many black lives end before they begin because of abortion. Can you say that you are for abortion and still say that "black lives matter"?"Can you say that you are pro-life and against abortion if you cannot say the words "black lives matter"? 

Ministering in Times of Crisis

  Walter Brueggeman wrote, “The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you by the grace of God.’ Many grieve today because our world has been taken away. We have sensed together a wave of change that we did not invite or expect. Some of us prepared to serve others in ministry. Our congregations have vanished, or at least diminished. We wonder what to say.

  Sergeant Chad Mercer enlisted in the National Guard in 1998. He worked at a hardware store, but excelled as a soldier. He was his brigade’s Soldier of the Year in 2004. I was his battalion’s Chaplain that year. His father had fought in Vietnam, and was proud of his son. Chad deployed to Iraq early in 2005, and a few months later, two of us informed his wife and parents that Chad had died in Iraq. His father was angry. He insisted that we could not understand his grief. What were we to say? Nine years later, when my own son died, I would better understand his grief.

  My biblical foundations for ministry include Isaiah chapter 40, which instructs to comfort God’s people, to remind them who God is – “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength” (40:29,31a). Earlier, Isaiah says, “You who bring good news to Zion,… lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say…, “Here is your God!” So as our world changes so rapidly, and the familiar sermons fail, we remember who God is, we comfort his people, and we speak good news of renewal without fear. Our crutches have been torn away, and we still are saved, by the grace of God.

Looking for a Preacher who Meets Your Needs

I reflected on words of Jesus in Matthew 10:40-42 today. I have not posted for about a year and a half. During much of that time, I have been searching for a new church at which to preach. Among responses I have received, one of the most common has been an acknowledgement that I am very well educated, trained, and experienced, but that they are choosing to go with a preacher or interview preachers that better meet their needs. No one ever says that I'm too old, although in a couple of cases I wondered if that is what they meant. My default is to give people the benefit of the doubt, and to hypothesize as many alternative scenarios as possible when considering why they did what they did. Jesus talked about the receiving of prophets and of his apostles by hearers in the passage from Matthew. He said that whoever receives a prophet receives a prophet's reward and that who ever received the apostles received him and that whoever received him received the one who sent him (God). He said nothing about people receiving a prophet because it meets their needs. I suspect that many kings of Israel and other Israelites felt that that Elijah, Nathan, Amos, Jeremiah, Micah, and Hosea didn't meet their needs. Those, however, were the prophets that God sent to them, and these prophets addressed their needs, but not their desires. As I get older, I realize that I have fewer years to preach and teach. That gives me a sense of urgency as I seek an audience. I realize my own failings, but I also realize that at least one congregation that did not select me did select as their preacher someone who precisely fit the description of what they said they wanted to avoid. So I continue to study, to pray, and to search. Pray that I will realize when the right door opens. Pray that the people on the other side of the door will realize that it is open, and instead of slamming it shut, invite me in.