Category: Devotions

Quarantine, self-bonding, personal space, stay at home, safe distance, self Imposed loners: the words all mean the same thing. Community is broken. Gathering places empty. Hugs aborted. Hand shaking taboo. We are kind of giggling about it but it’s all too real to laugh. Two more weeks of stay at home. Of course that doesn’t mean stay inside with the shades drawn and the lights out. Actually it kind of means the opposite. While we must curb our activity with anyone who doesn’t live in our house, and within common sense we live life. Take walks. Grill out. Play ball in the yard. Draw pictures and mail them to aunt Gertie. Watch movies. And yet, we in our normal life weeks tell each other we are so busy. Now, we have all the time in the world.

Today, I raked leaves. Yesterday we split wood. Tomorrow we will work in the shop. For us, it’s usual life but we also have been playing a lot of cards, sitting by the campfire and calling and checking on people. Tomorrow I will make lunch for grandpa and take supper to friends. We will pass the food through the door and I will make a cd for them to listen to. I listen to five times more podcasts than usual. And for the first time in many years, I desperately miss church. When things are at our convenience we seldom treasure their impact. When their presence no longer is available, suddenly the hole is bigger than we can see across. And yet, this too will pass. And we will resume our hurried lives, get way too busy and forget how to read by the fire, shoot baskets in the driveway and call our neighbors. The fun drive by waving will become speeding in a hurry to get somewhere. Our hearts will once again be distracted. Or maybe not. Maybe we will let God keep his place in the drivers seat and handle the steering wheel…

It wasn’t something we used to do. Of course we didn’t have the technology either. But now, we can and we do. We take selfies. They are unflattering, awkward and rather egocentric simply by their name but they capture a moment. And as in everything, when one captures a memory sometimes that memory hurts the heart.

Two weeks ago today I was heading home from the Bluegrass convention. I didn’t have time to stop but something inside said to pull off at Zumbrota and drive to that all familiar address. For twenty minutes I held the hand of a dear friend. We went down memory lane, , she asked about the things I told her in my last note to her, we laughed, said “I love you” and then prayed. What if that was it? What if all our meetings ended that way? Today I sat by the fire and cried. I love my cabin. It’s a great place to quarantine myself. Today was another one of those moments that hurt the heart. Friday I had been thinking of Lil. I wrote my love in a card and mailed it. She won’t ever get it. Friday Lil went to meet Jesus. The last thing I did for her was all I could do. All I could do was share my heart, say I love you and pray.

I had to search on my phone for the photo I knew was there. A selfie of Don and Lil and myself. Now both of them are with Jesus . And all I am left with is a selfie that hurts the heart. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

I love the prayer book, Valley of Vision. It has become one of the mainstays beside my big black Bible. Today’s reading reminded us who God is and what we are to become. “We depend upon his death, rest in his righteousness, desire to bear his image.”

At the end of the reading it gives this challenge.

“Let us as Christians fill our various situations in life, escape the snares to which they expose us, discharge the duties that arise from our circumstances, enjoy with moderation their advantages, improves with diligence their usefulness, and may every place and company we are in be benefitted by us.”

Let me paraphrase to meet 2020 head on.

“Let us as  Christians live where we are, be wise in the virus warnings, be aware who needs our assistance around us, use this time to chill, refresh and renew our relationship with you, spend time listening (phones can be talked on not just texted) and may we be have eyes in back of our heads to see the situations around us and know what we can do so when we walk out the door (Figuratively), someone has been blessed by our being there by either our words, our kindness, our gifts or our prayers.”

I am mailing some care packages today. I will be sending a few cards and making a few more phone calls. People don’t social distance well. Our hearts need that gentle touch that comes from others. So if we can’t literally touch, what’s the next best thing we can do to have “every place and company we are in be benefited by us”?

Romans 1:11-12  “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong- that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”

Now is the time to encourage others. I really miss church. I miss communion. I miss prayer time and the reading of the Scripture. I miss the quiet moments. I miss the walking beside a total stranger knowing they felt they needed to be in church too. I miss the emotional bond that comes from being with a whole bunch of people; together! There is an odd kind of bond which Paul eludes to. There is something about being with other believers that really boosts our hearts.

So find a way to boost without being! Find a way to share without sitting beside. Find a way to give without your hands being the giver. Find a way to lay your hands on and pray without touching the one you are praying for. In this interesting time, social distancing doesn’t mean distancing of the heart.  Go find a way to love someone with the love of Jesus!

I remember when time seemed to stand still when I was a child and the news of President Kennedy’s assassination hit the radio waves. We didn’t have TV so radio is all we had. I remember walking through the Apache Mall and standing with many others outside Radio Shack and watched the Challenger explode. I remember instead of a World Series game there was an earthquake. The players were not running onto the field to protect themselves, they were frantically looking in the stands for their families and getting others out onto the field to safety. I remember walking into Hirshfields and hearing a place had flown into a building. Moments when time stands still never are forgotten.

I also remember that first kiss from this boy I liked. I remember my first overseas flight to England with Fred and Charlotte Miller. I remember when I realized I had broken someone’s heart by my sin. I remember realizing I needed to live like a Christian. I remember how cold the water felt of whitewater creek when I walked in to be baptized. I remember thinking Jim might actually be the one I marry. I remember seeing that first glimpse of Addlea, covered with white stuff and looking quite, newbornish. There are moments in time we remember. So while we go through the interesting world we are living in now, make sure you stop to appreciate the moments of awe, the smile of a friend, the love expressed in a note and the eyes around your table enjoying eating together cause you can’t really go anywhere. There will be lots of interesting things to remember from covid-19, but be sure the moments of the heart are treasured before you complain about the inconveniences that we think get in our way of enjoying life. And stay in your prayer room just s bit longer and thank God that you have electricity, food, water, cars with gas and of course the obvious: toilet paper.

I am reading through Lent a series that challenges my heart. Today’s was another topic that seems to accelerate the heart rate and raise the blood pressure. That word is slander. Ephesians 4 reminds us, “let NO unwholesome words proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment so that it will give grace to those who hear it.” That in itself is rather easy to do. Just don’t talk. However, there is a deeper river that goes below the bridge. It’s not just don’t stay it, he is eluding to not even thinking it. We are challenged to dig up and Uproot the attitudes that would produce slander. Now that’s a while different game. The writer of Ephesians says in verse 31 to get rid of bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander along with every kind of malice. I really have no problem not slandering the ones I love. It’s the people or the situations I am hesitant about that I tend to rile up and throw the heat. If I am to get rid of my issues, that will give my heart a chance to speak that which edifies not eatifies. We like to nibble on gossip which leads to slander. We like to take a bite of a snack wrap with those we don’t care for right in between two pieces of bad attitude. For me to change my disposition or attitude,takes a bit of humble pie, refocusing on myself and what I need to improve on rather than who can I talk about? That’s a mouthful to chew on as I Lay my head down for the night….