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22 months and a global pandemic later...I'm back!

I re-started my blog with the best of intentions nearly two years ago, and then I got distracted by life and forgot about it. No one who knows me well is the least bit surprised by that--they'd likely be more surprised if I had continued blogging regularly. Given the current state of affairs (#quarantined) I thought I'd try blogging. Again. 

This afternoon I tried writing a devotional. I've been sending the UCC Daily Devotional to my congregation every day for the last two weeks and thought my people might want to hear a word from their pastor. So here is a preview of what I will send tomorrow morning to the good folks at Pilgrim UCC.

Lamentations 1:1, 4 1 How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.4 The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter.

Today, the Spirit moved me to open my favorite Bible to the book of Lamentations. The book of Lamentations is a book of poetry grieving the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. As I read, I was struck by how beautifully verses 1:1 and 1:4 summed up our current reality. Our lives as we know them have fundamentally changed thanks to the novel coronavirus. As we retreat to our homes, many of us grieve all the things once taken for granted. There seems to be a palatable sense of grief and despair that even once things return to “normal,” our lives may never be “the same” again.

The optimist in me searches to find something good in all of this. I keep thinking of one of my dearest friends who owns a demolition company. Her company is the one that blew up the old highway 47 bridge into Washington last year. That bridge was a piece of history. It was also, frankly, terrifying to drive across. Demolition of that old, outdated, and just plain scary bridge was necessary to allow for the construction of a beautiful, safe, new bridge. Sometimes you have to blow up the existing structure in order to rebuild something stronger, safer, and better! So, in the midst of the implosion of our day-to-day lives courtesy of Covid-19, where do you see new construction taking place?  Where are existing structures giving way to new, stronger, and more beautiful structures? 

Prayer: Holy Creator, in the midst of our lonely cities and the destruction of all that we knew to be comfortable and familiar, show us where we are rebuilding: rebuilding relationships, restoring creation, renewing our faith, and rebuilding new lives amid the chaos, grief, and destruction. Amen.

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