To the Church in Quarantine

I usually write articles. But sometimes life is different than we expect it and so our response looks different than we might expect it.

When I look around me, I see so many of you working so hard in such weird situations. I see you reaching and caring. I also see judgment and a lot of opinions. Perhaps, this is a time to learn a lesson in what we need more of in general - more compassion, more empathy, more flexibility, more context, more questions, more mercy.

And so I wrote this unexpected poem, during an unexpected time. Because I love you, Church. You are doing your very best, offering your all; expending energy and learning new things and trying to meet your people and love them where you are, and where they are.

Sometimes, we just need to know that our work is seen, that our hearts are seen;

Then, we can get to that other stuff easier - compassion, empathy, flexibility, context, questions, and mercy.

To the Church in Quarantine,

I see you. 

I see you loving and I see you struggling 

I see you walking out there where the world is, clinging to Truth and praying it can be heard;      

sharing hope and asking God to give that hope strong wings 

I see you connecting in ways you never have before, and feeling the weight of the created human need for presence and connection

I see you learning new skills and growing, in order to share the Gospel as clearly as possible with that world out there 

I see you zooming and skyping

I see you calling and texting

I see you writing notes to individuals, to families, to nursing homes; from your house to each house;

no one left out, no one left behind is the theme of your heartbeat

I see you nursing and policing and shopping with masks,

returning hot breath back to your face,

a gentle reminder that you breathe by the breath of His lungs

and that is what sustains you

today, every day

I see you dropping something on your neighbor’s front porch

outside apartment peepholes, at food banks, and shelters;

continue valuing each stranger as you move forward

I see you birthday parading and toilet paper-sharing;

I see you forgiving in close quarters and in the distance of video meetings

I see your podcasts and your livestreams, your devotions and your devotion;

I see your voices bringing His voice to a world in need

I see your exhaustion trying to find ways to reach your people and care for all their needs

I see your sadness, missing one another’s faces, waiting to gather together around His Table: pass His Cup, share His Bread;

How great would it be to simply pass some peace?

I see your joy in quarantine weddings, quarantine baptisms, baby showers and Sunday school packets

I see you celebrate eternity with the saints we have lost during these days; making funerals work for ten hearts in-person and countless hearts in the unity of the Spirit

I see you, Church.

I see you pray, and study, and reach, and teach, and love, and serve

I see you Church, working, wrestling, being, yearning, believing

And He sees you, Church, Not Forgotten, Never Forsaken

I see God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit in what you are doing, and where you are today; this day that He has made

And there will be a day, not too far away when we gather face-to-face, hug, neck-to-neck, study and grow side-by-side once again

Until then, may this be a time, Dear Church, to live in the realization that we are simply sojourners here, that all that is stable, all that ever was stable is Christ,

the rest is bricks that tumble, grass and flowers that fade 

We were never meant to stay here,

We were never meant to be a building with doors and roofs and locks; those are temporary gifts in a temporary world

I see you, Church, looking to the bigger, the eternal kingdom

I see you snug and tight in homes of wood and stone and clay; Your eye on the Cornerstone, the Capstone, the King 

May we lean into His might and His mystery, His rest and His reflection, His promises and His purposes in this time and always

He is seen, Dear Church, through you.

Up Next - Ministry Moment: Summer Creation Retreat for families or youth (usable in person or via tech or packet dropoff)

In the Meantime - Check out more posts in the Dear Church series or the study that inspired the series, The Mighty and The Mysterious: A Study of Colossians