Strange days indeed

Some not-so-random

thoughts and observations

on the first day of my “isolation”

• Sick Sick Sick by the Queens of the Stone Age didn’t seem like a good way to start my day
• Giving a check to my work partner and noticing how old he’s gotten in the nearly seventeen or so years we’ve been working together and hoping i saw him again when this is all over
• Shutting down a job site with no idea when anyone will be back feels weird
• Being yanked around by the customer through phones and intermediaries and hoping it’s not because he won’t come out of his house and talk to me directly.
• Leaving there and driving all over the county closing offices for my wife’s company
• Empty parking lots and darkened stores.
• Cherry blossoms and dogwoods in full bloom reminding me of God’s promise of resurrection after death in Spring
• A line of cars snaking around a large parking lot hoping to get into the bank drive-thru.
• Joggers, walkers, bicyclists, bikers, kids with loud cars, old men with convertibles enjoying the weather.
• A line of people wrapping around the corner hoping to get into the gun and ammo shop.
• Full parking lots in grocery stores, liquor stores, and beer stops.
• Remembering i’m carrying around all of my empty gas cans to fill them.
• People wearing gloves at the grocery store.
• Me wearing gloves in all of the offices i’m entering.
• Forgoing dinner with my folks because i’ve been every where and met lots of people and just want to make sure i’m not symptomatic before i go there.
• But the best was the first thing this morning— my reading plan called for Psalm 91 today. 

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

will lodge in the shadow of Shaddai.”

The secret place of the Most High.  That phrase always strikes me.  The shadow of Shaddai.  Almighty, all powerful.  i don’t know all it means but to me it reminds me that Jesus isn’t great because he saves us from affliction but through it.  The flames are taken by him and we hide in his shadow.  But it seemed all the more poignant because like the Queens of the Stone Age, Psalm 91 repeats sick, sick, sick three times. 
“For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler,

from the plague of destruction.”

“You need not fear the terror of the night,

or the arrow that flies by day,

or the plague that spreads in the darkness,

or the destruction that devastates at noon.”

“No harm will befall you,

and no plague will come near your tent.”

“My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”

"Now I myself heard, but I did not understand, and I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”

What if there was nothing on teevee?

What if there was nowhere to go?

What if groups of ten or more were forbidden or at least, very, very frowned upon?

What if travel between cities stopped?

What if contact between neighbors stopped?

What if there were no hugs, no kisses, no shared meals, no parties, no assemblies, no place safe for society to gather except the ironic forced assembly of the sick and the caregivers in hospitals?

What if we saw more police than priests on the streets of Rome and the Vatican?

What if there were curfews and it became unlawful to leave our houses after dark?

What if whole economies collapsed because no one could go to work?  

What if stores ran out of food and who could go to them anyway?

What if only Amazon became our only provider?  Our only employer?  The only vehicles on the roads other than emergency ones?  

What if all the schools closed?

What if the worst estimates are right and hundreds of thousands of people began dying?

What if it's true that this won't be measured in weeks but months?


What if nations, their economies wrecked, their people desperate, their governments jealous for their own power, take advantage of the situation to attack their neighbors?

What if this marks the change of life as we know it?

What will the church do?

Well, what are we going to do?

We are the church.  We do not mourn as those who have no hope.  We are the ones freed from our fear to think creatively and the ones given the knowledge of God to think purposefully about next steps.  Baby steps and giant steps.  What can we do to ensure the good of our communities and the furthering of God's kingdom today and ten years from now?  What is God saying to us through His Word about this moment?  About how we will spend our time?  About how we will care for our families and each other's families?  About what is important?  About what is necessary and what should never have been as necessary as we made it and by God's grace we are being invited to let go?  How will we communicate these things to each other?  How can the Body continue to operate in this disconnected state?  What does justice and mercy look like in this brave new world?  What does courage look like?  Will we be like those in Numbers 11 who longed for what we had in Egypt or will we be those who sojourn in this land as exiles hoping in the country to come?

What must we do to do the works of God?  The floor is yours, Pray, read the Scriptures, pray again and then i and we look forward to hearing what the Spirit has been telling you.

"And now, Israel, what is Yahweh your God asking from you, except to revere Yahweh your God, to go in all his ways and to love him and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of Yahweh and his statutes that I am commanding you today for your own good. Look! For to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet to your ancestors Yahweh was very attached, so as to love them, and so he chose their offspring after them, namely you, from all the peoples, as it is today. So you shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn. For Yahweh your God, he is God of the gods and Lord of the lords, the great and mighty God, the awesome one who is not partial, and he does not take bribes. And he executes justice for the orphan and widow, and he is one who loves the alien, to give to them food and clothing. And you shall love the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. Yahweh your God, you shall revere him, you shall serve him, and to him you shall cling, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done with you these great and awesome things that your eyes have seen. "  Deut 10