Fearless Faith

The myth of the super parent or super family is alive and well these days. How do you handle the stress of change? Don’t believe everything you hear or see, particularly online. The perfect happy family that has found impossibly fun ways to cope with the pandemic and our cultural unrest is not as prevalent as we imagine, or that others would have us imagine. One notable post from a “celebrity” I have never heard of made an adventure out of quarantining, enduring the experience in part by making her own bread as a family activity, “you know, just like the rest of the world!” Yikes.

The world reality is much more problematic. Some pandemic consequences have included a rise in domestic violence rates, increased demands for supplemental resources and a re-prioritizing by most families of what it takes to manage week-to-week. For many, it comes down to establishing a new equilibrium every day, a task that can overwhelm and impact even the most resilient among us. This unsettledness is a new experience for those of us who are pretty smug when everything else is reasonably OK.

An unsettledness regarding faith has also made its presence known during this time. Churches are trying their best to accommodate concerns related to health and to culture, but the range of response is broad, and no one group can claim to have gotten it 100 percent right. What has resulted in some settings is a healthy self-evaluation, both formal and informal, of what we are doing well, not doing well, or hoping to do better. Several congregations have changed course mid-stream while others have pressed ahead with (Kingdom) business as usual. What actions will prevail in the long run? This particular historical timeframe will provide graduate theses fodder for years to come.

In the meantime, each day is an opportunity to accomplish something good. It may not be what we intended to do, but the pandemic has, at the very least, taught us to face each day with more clarity than we have offered up in the past. For some it means tackling the big questions in our lives. For others, it is a reminder to slow down and be in the moment. That is something that Jesus had down pat. The most important person of the day was the person in front of him. The most critical issues of each day, the problems that need attention, the concerns that won’t go away; all appear much more manageable when we have struck some degree of equilibrium and balance regarding life in general. Again, Jesus was never shy in pointing out the things that truly mattered. Can we do that for each other?

So, what is the equilibrium that is needed? It is different for each of us, though it always warrants asking others for their view. Each of us are unique, responding to God’s call in a variety of ways. Can we get past the perception of sole ownership of what we believe to be right? Could it be that we haven’t figured it all out on our own? With so many voices in our ear in any given moment, today would be a great day to unplug, disconnect, and consider how to re-vision our lives. Will it be enough to simply get past the hurdles of each day? Sometimes that is all we can ask.