Day 72 - Catching wildfires

I'm listening in to the UK Wildfires broadcast tonight. Worship. Word. World. Some thoughts that I will need to process:

• If I leave lockdown with memories of Netflix binges and not much else, how have I used the time given to me? 

That one is easy. I haven't binged on Netflix. Neither on books, or choc. We've had lunches and suppers together, games nights, movie nights. I've used a lot of time chasing school work but I am learning to give them the school work to do. It is theirs, after all. Not mine.

• When coronavirus hit, the church responded by leaping into online services, virtual meetings, watch parties, emails and changed preaching programmes. They are also telling stories. But while stories are important, changing the narrative is "importanter".

So, I'm not sure how to verbalise this thought I am processing. Maybe by rephrasing? What is church to me, in me, through me?

I've hardly engaged with the church I attend in this time. I've muted the emails, newsletters, whatsapps, groups, zoom calls. The silence has been golden, restorative and welcome. Oh dear. That sounds rough. Eight weeks in and I feel like I am just emerging again, cautiously. Maybe not into a "church space" but into a space where church is the people I actually interact with, not the place I attend once a week where people only nod at me.  

I'm thinking of a friend exploring missio Dei, of another reaching out to her other-religion neighbours in a country far from here, yet another with whom I meet once a week so we can shop together, the friends I've chatted to on their curbsides, the one who called just to say hi. 

Being church has meant phoning parents from school groups to say hi and let them know they are not alone, whatsapping daily stories with 4 ladies who live 1600km from me, completing writing work with excellence late at night and editing a Club newsletter at the drop of a hat. It's real, alive, compassionate, awkward. 

• During this pandemic - what is my sacred pace?

I do know that the first two weeks were quiet, then life ramped to about-normal speeds. Maybe faster than normal with meals, school AND work on top of house, family, parents. This blog has been a sacred place. 

How to set a sacred pace and now maintain it? That's another question to resolve. But maybe not at 11pm after working until 00:30 last night!

Final thought. This is day 72 of coronavirus impact on our family. 

Of the 365 days in this year, we have spent 1/5th of our year dealing with coronavirus and we have lived through 40% of this year. Chase a wildfire, catch a wildfire. Just stats. Crazy stats. No interpretation.