A Bigger Danger Than Covid-19

Friends- I FELT IT, TOO. 

That small rush, the relieved exhale that happened when I opened my email earlier this week and read of our church’s cancellation of Bible Classes Wednesday night. They’ve cancelled classes on Sunday as well and are reviewing and responding as the CDC and the White House advise and update the Covid-19 situation. 

I was mainly excited because that meant NO RUSHING OUT THE DOOR WEDNESDAY LEAVING CHICKEN CASSEROLE PLATES ON THE ISLAND UNTIL 9PM FOR ME THIS WEEK! 
::jubilant celebrations:: 

I’m kidding. Mostly. 

But then I caught myself. BECAUSE MISSING MY CHURCH FAMILY SHOULD HURT MORE THAN THAT. Y’all Sundays and Wednesdays are my favorite days of the week! I’m going to miss the fellowship and the friendship and the sweet ladies that smuggle my kids sugar free gum between class and worship. The recipe swapping. All my free chicken raising advice.  

As much as we’ll miss the PEOPLE we worship with, maybe the bigger worry is that we’ll miss the WORD as well. For some of us, the only time we touch a Bible is on our way to church. It might live on the backseat of our cars so we don’t forget it. The only time we spend studying His Word might be when our bodies are in a building that has pews and a baptistry in it. 

And y’all, that’s a crying shame. 

Covid-19 might separate us from our friends but allowing it to separate us from our Bibles is approximately one million times worse. One hurts our hearts but the other harms our soul. 

Our aim could be to use this extended time at home to deepen our family ties (Stress  eating chocolate in your locked bathroom is TOTALLY encouraged. Google ‘Skinny Chocolate’ and you’ll get a buncha superfoods in with your chocolate fix, too.) and to find ways to study and worship not only for ourselves personally but with our families too. Think of how much stronger our habits could be if we focused some of the time we’ve been given at home on staying in The Word. 

Our crew has been working to memorize a big chunk of Psalm 119. Our family reward was going to be to head to town and celebrate at a restaurant but now it’s looking like we’re gonna need to revamp those plans. Bless our quarantine hearts. Either way- we have been planting scriptures in our hearts as a family. And Covid-19 can’t stop that. 

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**SIDE NOTE: Let’s cut our church leadership some slack, m’kay? 

They have literally NEVER IN THEIR LIVES shepherded a church family through a nationwide pandemic. For every person that is calling them all upset that they’re canceling services, there’s surely another one waiting on the other line complaining to them that they shouldn’t. They’re probably fielding phone calls and text messages and faxes and carrier pigeons every.single.hour asking about service plans. They’re watching the news and meeting and pondering and watching and praying. THIS HAS LITERALLY NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE so instead of complaining about how they’re handling things- pray for their discernment instead.