Summer is going to be strange this year. Suitcases will remain in the roof space. Airports will be empty. A spot to bask in the sun will be at a premium as social distancing continues. And what of church life this summer? Devoid of annual Holiday Bible Club, church barbeques, visitors popping into our services while at the caravan. It can all feel a bit bleak – like a typical Irish summer spent looking for a glimpse of sun between the gathering clouds. But how might we use this strange summer season well as individuals and churches?
Rest and allow God to restore our souls
If ever there was a time to hear God’s invitation to allow him to make us ‘lie down in green pastures, lead us beside still waters and restore our souls’ (Psalm 23) this is probably it. The last few months have increased the strain and stress of life in ways we do well to take note of if we are to avoid burnout. There was adrenalin rush of the early weeks of lockdown when we were rushing around trying to get everything organised to just keep looking after the everyday basics of life. Then the growing sense of fear, dread and panic, followed by the constant bombardment of bad news, sense of sadness and frightening forecasts. We’ve had to grapple with our anxieties about loved ones, our own vulnerability, the financial implications of lockdown. The anticipation of announcements about a roadmap of escape only led to a deepening sense of gloom as it finally dawned on us that we are going to be living with the realities of COVID-19 and social distancing for a long time. Hasn’t this roller coaster of emotions and their background mood music depleted us heart, soul, mind and strength?
So, let’s hope and pray the good weather we have enjoyed wasn’t summer come early! Even if it was, let’s find ways to be renewed in body and soul. Allow the pace of life to slacken a little. Appreciate God in all the blessings of home, family, friends, creation, his Word and prayer. Accept that he might be leading us into a summer Sabbath that doesn’t necessitate travel, translation and tanning cream.
Review our rhythms
As summer gives us time to catch our breath, it also offers a crucial moment to review our rhythms of life which have been knocked out of kilter so much in recent months. Now that we are faced with living with lockdown for longer than we might have hoped or expected, have we set a pace of life that we can maintain? Are there things we need to stop doing, do differently or start to do?
These might be particularly important questions for congregations to ponder as we head into July and August. Are we going to keep everything going at the relentless velocity at which we responded to lockdown at first? Might we need to cut back to our core provision of Sunday worship for at least a couple of months and think again about some of the other things we are doing to get into a more sustainable stride for the long haul? Maybe some things need to happen fortnightly, or once a month, instead of every week. There is no shame in that, just the wisdom of knowing that God pictures our life with him as more of a marathon to be run than a short sprint.
Equally, as lockdown restrictions begin to ease new possibilities open up to us. Have we created enough margin to take advantage of those opportunities? Have we enough head space to be imaginative about what might they be? Let’s allow ourselves to ask and answer those questions while all the time being kind to ourselves.
Ready ourselves for what lies ahead
Just as summer gives way to autumn, lockdown will give way to a new normal at some stage in the short or medium term. Then we will be faced with a new phase of life for which we need to begin to prepare. Work, school, university life will all return, not quite as we know them. So will church life. There will be some form of restart, reopening, restoration of our life as the community of God’s people. All of that will require significant rethinking. We will need to begin to consider all of this in advance. There will be lots to get ready and for which to be prepared.
So, we can’t afford to wile away our summer this year either – let it slip past, as it often does, leaving us wondering how on earth it got to be September again. Perhaps this summer with less members away we do have time to form a group to think about what will be involved in our congregation gathering together again when the time comes. Thinking through what is involved in reopening our buildings. Planning our use of space for social distancing. Organising for the extra cleaning bound to be involved. Also prayerfully pausing before God to ask how we have been changed by living through lockdown and the lessons it has taught us that might shape a different future from our old familiar past. Paradoxically, this summer promises us the gift of time at a moment when we might find we have no time to waste in preparing for all that lies ahead.
A spiritual staycation
When on vacation we often know we have had a good day when we have enjoyed a good mix of activity – lounging by the pool in the morning, enjoying a walk in the afternoon, planning the next day’s trip over dinner in the evening. Maybe we should look for that same refreshing mix in this summer’s spiritual staycation too. So let’s ask God to help us to know rest in him, find his rhythm and get ready for his future.
This blog is part of a wider series under the campaign, These Three Remain to help members and congregations during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Visit the These Three Remain hub here.