MINIMIZE UNNECESSARY DISTRACTIONS: I’m tired
On January 1st of this year I wrote in my journal, “A simple focus for this year - MINIMIZE UNNECESSARY DISTRACTIONS.” My desire was that 2020 would be a year of clarity. A year in which I would take the time to reflect and evaluate my life, my personality, passions, interests, and aesthetic concerns.
The year started off well. In early January I was off to Sierra Leone to spend time with friends in Tikonko who work for RHCI, an organization that is dedicated to overcoming one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. I am privileged to be a member of their board of directors. I find that spending time in another culture provides a solid framework from which to evaluate my own.
A few days after returning from Sierra Leone I was on a flight to Belfast. Ten days at home meant time with family and friends, a walk along the north coast, and enjoying the 4 Corners Festival. It was a great time.
I couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the year and was looking forward to a summer trip to Belfast.
By the time March 27th rolled around I found myself once again writing in my journal, everything had changed. “Crying, I’m worn out. Emotionally empty. No way to replenish with natural beauty or my introversion. No escape.” This was the impact of COVID-19 on my life. Two weeks prior to writing these words we were in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. A necessary distraction had appeared and it demanded a response.
As a precaution, on Wednesday, March 11th, our church staff made the decision to cancel a fundraising lunch and our post-worship coffee time. The situation escalated quickly and on Friday, March 13th, I found myself emailing our church elders saying I believed we needed to cancel worship altogether. At first I didn’t get a consensus on how to proceed as there was very little information to go on. Then one elder said, “I suggest cancelling worship. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a very small price to pay if it prevents even a single person from being at risk in these uncertain times.” This concern for the most vulnerable is a critical element of the gospel. We made the decision that we would go online.
On March 15th I used my Google Pixel 3 phone and an external microphone to broadcast a live worship service. I wanted to go live, not pre-recorded. My desire was to create a space on Sunday morning where people could gather around their computers, phones, TV’s, ipads or other devices and know that they were engaging in a live experience. They could submit requests for prayer and know that they would be included in the service.
Over the next two weeks we added additional video and sound equipment and I stayed up into the small hours of the morning learning the broadcasting software. I was grateful for my background in photography as I knew how to set up cameras for consistent white balance, exposure etc. It also meant I was the one doing all the work on this. I didn’t mind, I enjoyed it, it was a wonderful creative release, but I was exhausted.
It is now May 8th. I am still tired. My mind is still working overtime trying to come up with creative ideas to keep our congregation engaged during this time when we are unable to be together in person. I have talked to my colleagues, they are also tired, but we push on. I have talked to members of the church, they too are tired. This is not the year we imagined it would be, but we press on.
I continue to go back to my January 1st entry, “MINIMIZE UNNECESSARY DISTRACTIONS,” as it serves as reminder to stay focused on what matters.
We are Christians and therefore we are driven by love for God and love for our neighbor. We believe the Scripture are the word of God and so we live under their authority and even though we are tired and would like nothing more than for our lives to return to a semblance of what we are more comfortable with we commit to live as Paul commands us to, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Let’s be laser focused on this!
PS: The world around us may not live under the authority of the word of God, and they may even resent the call of Christ to give up self for the sake of the other. We have seen this in the protests at state capitols, where armed citizens have demanded their rights. This is not the way of Christ.
