faithisaverb
faith is a verb.
What is with the title "faith is a verb?" - The new testament of the Bible was written in Greek. In Greek, the word for "faith" is "πιστις" - which is not a really noun, but a verb. Faith is not something that you can possess so much as something that you do. You can't "have faith" - you "do faith." You demonstrate your faith in something by whether or not you actually do anything that reflects that. Faith (in anything) is meaningless if you aren't doing anything about it.
This blog is an ongoing story of Tyler Domske, a guy (who is also a husband, father, pastor, movie watcher, and book owner) who is trying to do something.
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Keep moving forward.
I came across this video today (ironically, my last post here was about this video, which shows you how long it’s been since I’ve written here).
I made it 13 months ago to highlight all of the really amazing things that our church had done in the first seven months of the pandemic, and to encourage us to keep going. I had no idea at the time that we weren't even half way through this at that point. None of us did.
What we were doing in this video at the time felt like making lemonade out of lemons - a temporary fix until things got back to "normal." This video at the time was more of a "summer vacation" kind of video than a "here's what we are capable of" video. But when I look back on it now, I'm reminded of how much more we are capable of when we actually allow ourselves to be creative and have fun - two things the church In America is really not known for.
We've been in this pandemic for a while, and we churches have really struggled to know how we can do what we usually do in the midst of it. We are anxious because for so long we have kinda acted like we were only built for one thing - gathering for worship - and the pandemic didn't allow us to do that any more.Now you can see that churches are jumping back into full swing as we near Christmas, again, because we aren't really sure how else to do it. If the pandemic has shown us anything, it's that the church really often struggles with creativity, to think of things in a new way - which also highlights the larger issue of WHY people aren't coming back. We claim to be a community that is alive and active, but when challenged to respond to change, all we know how to do is wait until things go back to "normal."
This is not how the church is supposed to be.
But for many of us, we are finding out that this is what the church has been.The hope though, is that many churches has been forced in these last two years to do things differently - in ways that we certainly wouldn't have chosen to do were it not for the pandemic. I would like us to reflect on those things - not as temporary ways to deal with a problem that we are desperately trying to pretend behind us, but as opportunities for us to see God offering us a chance to do a new thing. I'm not saying God caused the pandemic so that the church could rediscover it's purposes - that would be a terrible god who uses suffering to prove a point, and that is not the God that I know.
What I am saying is that this season of challenge is offering us an opportunity to grow, a chance to see how resilient we can be - or how limited we are in our ability to respond to challenges.The church is not a building or a worship service. The church is a community.
A community of rag tag screw ups and fakers that God has called together to let us know that being together is better than being apart.
A community that is not limited to a specific space or experience.
A community that is not closed off to anyone.
It is a community of doubters and worriers.
People who are scared and weak.
People who are tired and frustrated.
People who are vulnerable and lost.
It is in this community that we find healing and purpose.
Not to serve the church, to grow the congregation, or to meet the church budget.
We find purpose in belonging to a family that accepts us in the midst of all of those things we don't like about ourselves, all of those things that others would tell us make us undeserving of love.
And we find in that community a God who is bigger than we can understand, bigger than a building, bigger than a worship service, bigger than a pandemic that changes the course of how we thought our lives were going.
Let us see that God is giving us a chance to be made new.
Not just figuratively, but literally.
Let it be that when people think of "the church" they don't think of a building or a service, but they think of a community of people who love and serve others - not for their own purposes of growing an institution, but for the mere purpose of loving others the way that God loves everyone.
We as the church have begun to do new things because we had no choice.Let those new things be the beginning of something new, rather than merely an anomaly in the life of the American church that desperately wants to get back to the comfort of a system that has been failing for the last five decades, racing toward insularity and oblivion.
The Body of Christ is living and active.
We have it within us to be something new.
Let us not fear, for God is with us (ALL OF US).
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This has been such an unprecedented time, a time where we can struggle to get a sense of what we have done.
In many ways, we have been acting as though things are on pause, waiting for a return to "normal" (which in many ways seems as distant now as it ever has). For many of us, I think this time can feel like it has been seven months lost.
We need to push back against that.
This video can help us to see so much of what we have done in those seven months as a community.
We have not lost time, but rather we have found new life.
We have heard voices that we wouldn't have and been places we could not have had we been in our traditional worship space during that time.
We have expanded.
We have seen that God is bigger than a building, and that worship is bigger than liturgy.
We have found new room for ART and MUSIC that wasn't there before.
We have found new places for voices and talents of people truly of all ages - from a baby helping us to understand the footwashing passage on Maundy Thursday in a brand new way to people highlighting how God is present in place that they never would have thought to look before.
The Body of Christ is bigger than we give it credit for.
The church is not simply a place or a liturgy, but it is the voices of all members, of all ages, in all places, singing together in praise of a God is is bigger and more loving that we can ever being to comprehend.
Please watch this video.
This is not a video of a church that is on pause.
This is a document of a church that has come alive.Let us be this church in all places.
Let us raise a generation who not only believes that they have a voice in this community, but actually experiences opportunities where people listen to that voice.
Let us be a people who bring all of our gifts, all of our talents and interests to the table to share with the whole community.
Let us be this church every day.
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A Brief Open Letter to a Church in the (middle?) of a Pandemic
As we all know, everything changed in March when the coronavirus outbreak caused us to postpone all of our in-person meetings and gatherings for nearly seven months.
No church was prepared for this, but rather than lament our losses, I have been very proud of how WCPC has used this season as a way to get creative. It has pushed us to truly live out the well worn aphorism that “the church is more than the building.”
As we essentially spent the last seven months without a building, we have had the opportunity to look at what it means to be the church when we cannot meet in our building. We immediately were able to jump to weekly online worship (and have not missed a single week). The online worship has been led by various members of the congregation of all ages and from all over the country!
We have contributions of music, art, prayers, and readings, as well as simple reflections and encouragement from members on where they have seen God in the week.
The pandemic has been difficult and unprecedented, but it is has also been a reminder of what matters. God is still with us and has kept us strong as a Body of Christ even as we have not been able to have “regular church” in over half a year.
We are reminded of the story of the people of God, particularly in the exile, where God promised that God had a plan for them, even though the exile was going to last for another 70 years. God told them not to simply “wait it out” but to build homes and plant trees – to live life and work toward blessing of the space that they were in right now, not simply waiting until everything got back to normal (because it would never get back to that kind of “normal” again, even after the exile).
We have been led by God in the same way.
God is still with us today just as much as God was with us on March 8 – the last time we worshipped together in person.
This season allows us to see that God doesn’t live in the church building, but that God dwells with us in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and even in quarantine.
Even as we look forward to the end of quarantining (which is still not ultimately as close as we would hope), let us do so with an assurance that God is with us RIGHT NOW, not simply when things “get back to normal” – for we may never completely know that “normal” again.
Let us be people who know that the Body of Christ is bigger than a specific place.
Let us know that God has put us in this place for a reason, and that is to bear witness to what God is doing even now.
Let us know that we are called to love one another and to enjoy being a community together – even if that together involved being apart.
Let us look forward with wonder, imagination, hope, and love.
May it be so, in Christ’s name.
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Day 25: Church [40 Days of Listening]
"Lean On Me" by Bill Withers
Bill Withers died this week. He wrote some truly amazing songs, and I recommend them all, but there was one song that he wrote that was transcendent – Lean On Me.
It is a modern day hymn that speaks to the reality that we suffer, but that we all need each other:
Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow
Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on
Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won't let show
You just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me (call me)
If you need a friend (call me)
This is what the church is supposed to be. It is mutuality, it is relationship, it is caring for one another.
It is loving your neighbor as yourself.
It is doing the hardest thing – asking for help.
When we live as the church, we have to lean on each other. We have to share each other’s burdens. We have to trust each other with our problems. We have to be willing to help one another, but we also need to be willing to let others help us.
The church isn’t a building where people meet to praise God.
It is a community that is made up of people who have pain and sorrow, people who need help to carry on.
When we all lean on one another, we are stronger. When we all lean on each other, we become the Body of Christ, ready to help others know that there’s always tomorrow.
Here is a link to “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 24: Freedom
"Freedom" by Beyoncé
This song and this notion is perhaps an ironic subject when we are in the midst of being told to shelter at home. Many of the freedoms that we enjoy on a regular basis have been off limits for the last several weeks, and there’s no clear sense of how quickly they are going to coming back.
Now, before we start to feel too sorry for ourselves, let us remember that we enjoy more freedoms that any society in history. We live in the richest nation in history, with the greatest sense of securities and entitlements than any civilization has ever had. Even in our sheltering, we still enjoy relatively unfettered access to our media, our news, our communication, our food, and our entertainment. So all of the freedom that we have lost in these past few weeks should be taken with a grain of salt.
Yet, this is a season of freedom. Lent, which is often viewed as the most binding season of the Christian year, as we abstain from things and keep things somber and reserved. Yet, rightly understood, all of those are actions of freedom. Lent means nothing if it is mandatory. We are not forced into contemplation and reverence, we take it on ourselves. We choose it. We choose to give things up not as punishment, but as a reminder of the gifts that God gives us.
In this season when we are asked to shelter in place, we are still allowed to go for walks in socially distancing ways, and those walks, which for many of felt like homework before now can feel like a gift and a joy in the midst of our day. Simplifying our lives allows us the freedom to see the things that bring us joy, to separate the gifts of God from the chores and tasks that we bring upon ourselves. To be able to differentiate between the things in our live that are the most important from the things that we feel obligated to cling to that really have no value.
Lent is a season of freedom because it points us toward the cross, and the cross is supremely about freedom.
Freedom from the fear of death.
From the fear of not being good enough.
From the fear of running out of time.
From the fear of not being loved.
The cross is not judgment. The cross is salvation.
The cross is not a threat. The cross is a joy.
And it is for everyone.
It frees us to see the world differently.
It frees us from the worry of trying to save ourselves, and opens up our hearts to trying to help and care for others.
Freedom isn’t a release from responsibility.
Freedom is a way to see the joy and the value and the clarity in the responsibilities that we have.
Freedom doesn’t send us out to the beach in the middle of a quarantine because we are afraid of losing out on pleasure.
Freedom instead lets us choose to self-distance and to shelter at home because it might save lives.
God has set us free to care about more than just ourselves.
To let us know that we are going to be alright when we care about others.
Let us know that we are in the midst of a season where we get to choose to care for each other.
And let us do so with a sense of joy, a sense of purpose, and a sense of freedom.
Here is a link to “Freedom” by Beyoncé
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 23: Cultural Ideal [40 Days of Listening]
"Prom Queen" by Beach Bunny
We are an extremely visual culture. This is not simply in terms of our reliance on screens for communication and entertainment, but in the broader sense of the value that we place on physical appearance. We are told that “clothes make the man,” “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” and place an undue amount of how our cultural heroes are able to do it all and look great doing it. We celebrate movie stars who can get their “beach body” back within three months of having a baby. We even understand what the phrase “beach body” means. Gyms and fitness centers market themselves on getting “the body you want” and “looking great naked” more than they market on simply getting physically healthy.
We are told that how we look matters. A lot. Our haircuts, our clothing, our bodies. We are to present ourselves as people who effortlessly are put together, who naturally are attractive without trying too hard.
This isn’t a generational thing. It applies to all of us in various ways. There are cultural expectations of what we should look like, regardless of our age.
However, it is most prominent for young people
This song is a simple rock song that gets right into the insecurities of a young woman trying to fit into all of the cultural expectations that have been thrust upon her.
We were all that person at one point, but it’s harder now than ever to fit into the expectations of the physical ideal. We are surrounded not just by pictures of celebrities, but also on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and countless other places where we see “normal people” who are nailing it. Whether it’s moms who have it all together, grandparents to put on the sweetest parties for their grandkids, dads who maintain washboard abs while coaching their kids in soccer, or college and high school kids who effortlessly maintain the look of Hollywood stars.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed and to feel inadequate and insecure.
Because we are told there is a standard,
and none of us are living up to that standard.
“If I’m pretty, will you like me…”
This song slowly gets to the honesty of this dilemma – we all want to be liked.
We want to have the affection of our peers and the attention of our significant others.
We want to be liked.
“Teach me how to be okay. I don’t want to downplay my emotions.
They say beauty is pain. You’ll only be happy if you look a certain way.
I want to be okay…
I want to be okay…”
Beauty is a gift from God. I don’t mean that in the sense that some people are “naturally beautiful.” All you have to do is take a walk through an art museum to see how much the ideal beauty standard changes throughout time and culture. Rather, I mean the ability to appreciate that which is beautiful is from God.
Dogs don’t stop to appreciate the beauty of the sunset.
Birds don’t wax poetically on the beauty of a newborn baby.
Elephants don’t long for the beauty of the ideal symmetrical face and the glimmer of sparkling eyes.
Beauty is something that is a gift, but in our efforts to define and control it – to proclaim that this is beautiful and to proclaim that isn’t beautiful is our way of corrupting this gift. We have taken a thing that is unique to the human experience and tried to commodify and control it.
And in doing so, we have weaponized it. What should be for everyone, should be a glimpse of God’s goodness in creation has become a way for us to value rate people, a means for us to feel less than.
But that is not how things should be.
God has created us each as masterworks, beautiful and uniquely made. We are each works of art that are not supposed to fit into a box of beauty standards.
When we allow our value to be defined by those cultural standards we are never going to be okay. We will never be enough.
Rather, we need to allow our value to be defined by the standards of the one who made us – we are loved and valued. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, each one unique and beautiful.
Let us know that we are beautiful, each of us.
Let us know that God has made each of us unique, just as a master artist makes each creation unique.
Let us not value ourselves or others by fleeting and demanding standards of a culture that values superficiality over inner gifts of love, grace, and acceptance.
If we are going to accept others, then we must accept ourselves, too.
God already does.
Here is a link to “Prom Queen” by Beach Bunny
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 22: Harmony [40 Days of Listening]
"Scenic World" by Beirut
There is great minimalism to this song. Most songs follow a simple pattern of movements. The traditional pop song goes “verse-chorus-verse.” Most praise songs go “verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus” (though some also seem to add “chorus-chorus-chorus-chorus-chorus…” to the end).
Then there are occasionally songs that go like this one.
There aren't changes in this song.
There are simply layers to it.
It starts with a melodica, which is basically a hand held keyboard that you blow into. The melodica plays a riff that it then repeated throughout the whole song. Slowly instruments are added in, complementing the melodica riff that never stops repeating. An according is added, then drums, then voice, then trumpets (and I think a violin matches the melodica eventually). And then slowly, they all pull out again, and we are left with the melodica.
The lyrics to the song aren’t really verses or chorus. It’s basically one verse that runs over the song.
Nothing in this song takes the lead away from what is happening. Everything just augments.
There is a richness composed out of the simplicity of the elements. You end up with a soundscape that could go on ad infinitum in this loop.
We often act as though the church is everyone learning how to sing the same song in the same way. Whether we mean to or not, we can often get into the mindset that there is a certain way that we are supposed to do church, and that those that come into the church are to take up the posts of those who came before them.
VBS must happen because it’s always happened, and the new people need to pick up where the older folks who have been doing it for twenty years have left off. The problem with this method is that there is little innovation or creativity, because everyone is just singing a song that was taught to them without being able to contribute something new. They were essentially just told to learn the song and then to start singing what they had learned so that others can take a break.
That’s not a good church. That’s a bunch of people who are afraid to let something end so something new can begin.
Church is supposed to work rather like this song. There is a steady motif that undergirds the rest of the parts, but each part that comes in harmonizes with the main riff – they don’t straight copy it, but rather bring their own sound to the song in a way that deepens everything (even the initial riff becomes richer when it is complemented by the other instruments).
When we make room for other voices in the church, we make room for harmony.
We could look at this song and worry about what is going to happen to the song once the melodica player dies. Who will play that fundamental part?? But even that part is unnecessary to the whole. If the all of the other instruments were to play there part, lacking the melodica, the song would still sound familiar and rich. It would be different, but not that different. Perhaps the next voice to come in is not a new melodica player, but rather a guitar player (which is absent from the song in its current form, but would give the song a new feel.
We need to come to the church with the gifts that we have, not the gifts that others tell us we are supposed to have, or the gifts the church is saying it needs but that we don’t have.
God gave us each a specific set of gifts. And we are to use them in the way that they are best meant to be used. We can bring each and every one of them to the church. And when the church is functioning at its best, there will be room in the song for any instrument that comes in and wants to harmonize, to play the way that they think fits best in the song, even if it’s a part no one had ever considered before.
Let us be a church of songs that don’t fit the paradigms we expect.
Let us be a church that has room for all of the instruments. Even melodicas.
Because the song is so much better when we can harmonize.
Here is a link to “Scenic World” by Beirut
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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(Sabbath 4) “An Ending (An Ascent)” [40 Days of Listening]
"An Ending (An Ascent)" by Brian Eno
This is the third Sunday in Lent.
Sabbath.
On Sabbath, I simply give you an instrumental track to listen to without much context (other than to use it to take a few moments of rest).
This is a song by Brian Eno, who was an innovator in ambient music.
This comes from the album Apollo, which is all space inspired.
Rest today. God gave you today, and today is good.
Here is a link to “An Ending (An Ascent)" by Brian Eno
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 21: You’re Okay
"The Middle" by Audrey Assad
Audrey Assad is a contemporary Christian artist.
She did not write this song.
It was originally by the rock band Jimmy Eat World and it appeared on their 2001 major label debut.
They wrote the song in response to a young fan who said she didn’t fit in with the punk scene in her school because she was too normal. The band was heartened by the girl’s letter, and wrote this song in response – an incredibly uplifting and encouraging song. They were saying to this fan, “Don’t worry about those other kids. Who cares about what they think. Things will get better, just be who you are rather than who you think people want you to be.”
The original version of the song is wrapped in an aggressive power pop package that makes you miss the sincerity of the message of hope that the lyrics bring (you can hear the original here). It’s still a great song, but its catchy enough that you can miss how genuinely sweet and powerful the message is.
In that way, I like the version better for hearing what the message is.
One of the best gifts that comes with age is perspective. That’s different than wisdom. A lot of times we try to sell the notion that being older automatically makes one wiser, but that is certainly not a guarantee. Perspective is different. Perspective doesn’t claim to understand why. It’s simply a sense of having been here before (or at least in a similar situation), and knowing that things will get better eventually. Perspective is a gift because it works even when we have no idea why things are happening, or how to stop it. We just know that it won’t last forever.
I remember times in my life when things were hard and thinking that things would never be well again, that I could never come from the despair that I was in back to the place of comfort and joy that I had been in before. But then, eventually, I did. Things got better. Sometimes right away, but more and more, it would take time before things got better. But in every case, they eventually did get better. Eventually, it got to the point that my prayer to God in hard times became, “God, I know things will get better, and one day I will look back on this time and know that whatever was on the other end of it was a better place. I know it will get better, I just wish I knew when.”
We are in a time now that, for many, is as dire a time as we have experienced in recent memory. Yet, we know that eventually, it will get better. That doesn’t mean that it won’t get worse first, or that we won’t experience something like this again in the future. But it will get better. We will get through this – and the more we take it seriously, the more people will get through it safely.
God is with us in the midst of this.
It just takes some time.
We’re in the middle of it right now.
But everything will be alright.
When we come to accept that, we are free to live into hope. We are free to be forces for positivity and love in the midst of a frustrating and scary time. We can help others, because we know everything will be alright. We don’t have to simply wait it out, we can use the time we have in the middle of it to find God in the middle of it with us, and to help others to see God’s goodness through our actions – caring for neighbors, reaching out to those who are alone, seeking the goodness in the middle of it all. Because we know that in the end, everything will be alright.
It just takes some time.
Here is a link to “The Middle” by Audrey Assad
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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What to do in the Quarantine: An internet guide for your mind, body, and soul
As we move into what seems to be a longer-term period of social distancing and quarantine, I thought it would be helpful to share a few things to help you stay mentally active during this season.
First, a reminder of why we are doing this: We are social distancing not as a protection for us as individuals, but more as a protection for the larger community as a whole. The goal of Christians is not self-preservation, but for the well-being of all people. With that in mind, we can see that social distancing, which helps to flatten the curve, is the most Christ-like thing that we can do in this time.
I want to remind you, though, that distancing physically does not mean distancing emotionally and relationally. We still can care for one another, and we are perhaps given even more time in this situation to do so.
There is a point in the book of Jeremiah in the bible where God is talking to the people who are in exile. They had been pulled out of their homes in Jerusalem and taken to live in Babylon. They prayed to God to be set free, and God responded in one of the most famous verses in the bible: “I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you - to give you a hope and a future.” You have likely heard that one before. It’s really encouraging. But God then goes on in the next verse to say part of that plan is that the people are going to be stuck in exile for another 70 years. So settle in. Build houses and get married, work to the blessing of those around you, because the plan involves this time of exile.
What was seen as a curse to the people of God had been reframed by God as a blessing - take this time and bear fruit. Things will go back to normal, but not for a while.
I’m not trying to say that this “exile” is going to last 70 years, but some reasonable predictions are saying we are 18 months away from a vaccine (at least) and without a vaccine, we are sill susceptible to this virus. So life is going to be different for a while. For some, it really is a major hardship and it is one the church and our society as a whole to care for the most vulnerable among us in this season). For many of us, though, this is an opportunity for time and presence that we don’t usually have. We can see that as a curse or a gift. We can lament the loss of what we had, or we can find new opportunities in what we have been given.
But know that throughout all of this - God is still there, empowering the helpers, working in each of us to do whatever we can to bring life to the world.
Now onto the resources:
Here is a list of several simple things that you can do for self-care:
Get dressed - it may be nice to stay in your “house pajamas” for a bit, but it’ll be more draining on you over time
Go outside - Self Distancing is not house arrest. Go for hikes, play in your yard, garden. Enjoy the weather (when it’s worth enjoying). We shouldn’t get within 6 feet of others, and should avoid places where there is a lot of contact like playgrounds, but hikes, bike rides, and other outdoor activities with out family.
Have a Plan - We are going to be settled into this for a while, so plan out your day and your week in a way that feels productive. This isn’t vacation, and treating it like vacation isn’t going to be helpful in the long run. We will appreciate the extra time more when we have a plan for getting the things done that need done first.
Be intentional - find things you’ve wanted to do, but perhaps didn’t have time to before now, and select certain things to do. This isn’t an opportunity to do everything you’ve been putting off, but it’s a good time to take on one or two things. Also be intentional about how much of everything that you do - especially things like social media. It can feel like you are staying informed, but it can quickly overwhelm you in ways that aren’t always helpful.
Connect with friends and family - We have time to be together. Even if you don’t live with family, we have time now to connect. Especially if you live alone, make sure that you are reaching out to friends and family, both to get some help and to receive help. Reach out to neighbors and friends who may be alone to be sure that they have what they need.
This video below tells us a bit about best ways to protect ourselves against the virus - namely, washing your hands:
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Next, a very thorough Q&A about what we know about the virus so far as of 3/18/2020. This video is incredibly helpful as a doctor answers questions about the virus and the situation we are dealing with. It’s over 30 minutes long, so maybe come back to this one later (but you really should watch it to get a better sense of what we are actually dealing with:
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Tons of ways to keep your mind, spirit, and soul active!
Now that we are rounding out our first week of social distancing/quarantining, I thought it might be helpful to share with you some resources on that I’ve found helpful to keep young minds (and even older minds) active.
Learning Stuff
CrashCourse – this is a tremendous site for probably middle school on up (it’s content appropriate for all, just academically probably for 12 & up). It provides super engaging rapid fire lessons on History, Science, Math, and dozens of other topics, with each video about ten minutes long. A great way to keep your mind engaged and excited while indoors. https://www.youtube.com/crashcourse
CrashCourse Kids – remember how I said that Crash Course is academically for probably 12 and up? Well they made a version that’s on par for probably ages 7-12.
https://www.youtube.com/crashcoursekids
PBS Kids – If you have kids between ages 3 and 12 and you haven’t gone to PBSKids.org yet, you’re in for a treat. Great programming, and a really great website with lots of good games and printable activities. And all the shows are educational, so it’s a pretty guilt free parenting spot. I highly recommend the show Odd Squad, which is a hilarious show that’s secretly about math.
https://pbskids.org/
ABC Mouse – ABCmouse.com is a great site for preschoolers that teaches them lessons like they are in a classroom, but does so with a really engaging interface that is super fun. It started as a program that helped prepare kids for school, but they have expanded it for grades up 5th grade, which each grade getting a specific track that is grade appropriate. They have a month free right now, or if the code below still works, they were offering free access during the duration of this self-distancing time.
https://dealsea.com/view-deal/1567224
How to Dad – These videos are just funny. An New Zealander dad makes funny videos about how to take care of his baby daughter. Not really educational, but very funny and creative (two things that a valuable commodities right now).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_txf_nR4fNOHJoWAVpHSqpDvkuecwpxw
Vihart maths – fun with math & doodles. And math.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOGeU-1Fig3rrDjhm9Zs_wg
Mister Chris – This is a show for younger kids from Vermont public television that is essentially Mister Rogers set in Vermont. It’s really delightful and moves at a Mister Rogers-like pace even though it was made in the last few years (which is incredibly refreshing).
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpKdaJ7UgatnRUG6JHTS-fA
Soul Pancake – SoulPancake is described as a channel that “tackles the universality of the human experience. We are the dreamers, misfits, artists, activists, and innovators who have the power to positively change the world. Our content opens minds and hearts by joyfully exploring and celebrating the many ways in which we seek connection, love, hope, truth and purpose. We believe all questions are worth asking, and all human lives are worth exploring. Simply put, we create stuff that matters - because you matter.” It was co-founded by Rainn Wilson (Dwight from “The Office”) and it’s really great. It offers several series of videos (one, “Kid President,” is great for kids of all ages) and just general videos that are engaging and thought provoking
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaDVcGDMkvcRb4qGARkWlyg
Science
Health Care Triage – a very helpful and creative channel that helps to explain the often difficult to understand world of Health Care. It’s particularly helpful right now in the midst of trying to understand COVID-19. From the makers of CrashCourse! The big Q&A video above is from here.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCabaQPYxxKepWUsEVQMT4Kw
SciShow – the makers of CrashCourse made a show that’s just about science!
https://www.youtube.com/user/scishow
SciShow Kids – the makers of SciShow made a show that’s just about science – for kids!
https://www.youtube.com/user/scishowkids
Mr. Wizard – This channel is made up of clips of the fantastic kids’ science show from the 1980s, Mr. Wizard’s World. Think Bill Nye the Science Guy, but hosted by a slightly grumpy Canadian septigenarian. The experiments are still really cool, and it’s surprisingly engaging watching these Canadian kids do science with this grumpy teacher helping them.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_J_aSKyWaNcEjK-eS4Jxg
Smarter Every Day – Destin Sandlin is an engineer from Alabama who is also a dad, and is just curious about how the world works. So he uses science to figure it out, and makes really engaging videos that take us along for the ride.
https://www.youtube.com/user/destinws2
NASA – The official NASA YouTube. NASA puts up really awesome videos which are a wonderful thing to get lost in. They do a great job of education, and this channel shows that.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ
Videos From Space – Another fantastic site with videos from space, largely from the International Space Station. I particularly recommend the videos from Commander Chris Hatfield, which was in the Space Station for over a year and made some great videos that show simple science experiments in space (like how you sleep in zero gravity, weather you can cry in space, and more fun stuff).
https://www.youtube.com/user/VideoFromSpace
Pittsburgh Zoo – many zoos are doing lots of live streaming and educational videos to get to see the animals and learn more about the life of caring for animals. Our local zoo is pretty good, but there are loads of other great ones out there, too.
https://www.pittsburghzoo.org/bringing-the-zoo-to-you/
Bible Stuff
Bible Project – Probably the most helpful bible resource that I’ve found online. Really great, well presented and scholarly videos that are super accessible and engaging. Loads of videos that walk you through each book of the bible, helping you to know the larger story of the bible. If you have long wanted to read through the bible and see this time as a great time to get started, this is the resource I would say you should use.
https://www.youtube.com/user/jointhebibleproject
BioLogos – a great site that talks about the beautiful connections between faith and science, and how wonderfully those two things are symbiotic. Good for a deep dive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQpFosrTUk
Bible for Normal People – Resources for reading and understanding the bible while breaking down some of the misconceptions and problematic interpretations of the bible that we have inherited over the generations.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrLeEfeGaJakbVMj8e6NKWQ
What’s in the Bible? – From the makers of Veggie Tales, this is a pretty great series that uses puppets to walk kids through the stories of the bible, and actually takes it pretty seriously (even though it’s still really goofy and funny). A great resource for teaching kids about the story of the bible.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiFIuW5SWY2HwVi878DVdug
Bible App for Kids – This is hands down the best bible app for young kids that I have seen. It’s probably best for ages 3-6, and it presents bible stories in an interactive storybook way, helping kids to know the larger story of the bible. Free app for phones and tablets.
https://bibleappforkids.com/
Guardians of Ancora – I just got this one, so I haven’t played through it all the way, but it seems like a pretty fun app that would be good for upper elementary ages to walk through the story of the bible. Free app for phones and tablets.
https://guardiansofancora.com/
LifeKids – This is the children’s ministry from LifeChurch (which is not really a church that I’d recommend fully), but their kids’ stuff is pretty great, and really fun. If you were looking for at home “Sunday school” this is a good place to go.
https://www.youtube.com/user/LCLifeKids
Staying active
Go Noodle – this is a site that is just filled with short videos to get kids moving. A lot of elementary schools use them, so your kids may already be aware of them. Great for getting little ones to move around and burn some energy (and for adults to get up and move, too).
https://www.gonoodle.com/
Cosmic Kids Yoga – This is a channel where a yoga instructor from Australia walks kids (and adults) through yoga exercises while telling a story. A great way to “trick” kids into doing yoga, and a great way to calm down at the end of the day.
https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
Yoga with Adriene – This is a great yoga channel that is more targeted toward adults (though kids could do it, too). Like taking a free yoga class. She’s really engaging and a great instructor. And she has a dog, which makes regular cameos.
https://yogawithadriene.com/
Creativity
Flippy Cat – This is a fantastic channel that is just incredible dominoes displays being set up and then knocked down. A beautiful example of creativity, and it could (as it did in our house) get kids on a domino kick, which is a great creative outlet when stuck indoors.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuO06egvl5yE__rR_02WUZw
Hevesh 5 – Another great dominoes channel, this one with Hevesh5 who is an awesome host. Her builds are inventive and really inspiring.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxJsQFhb8PFjtuN5gdOV6-w
PBS Ideas Channel – This is an all around engaging channel about ideas, with random topics on the history of pizza, why cocktail glasses are different, and the similarities between Santa Claus and pro wrestling. Put on by PBS, so it has some rigor to it, but largely a collection of random thoughts considered seriously. It’s a fun rabbit hole that will make you think and perhaps learn a thing or two.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3LqW4ijMoENQ2Wv17ZrFJA
Lunch Doodles with Mo – This is one of the best things to come out of this whole situation. Children’s author Mo Willems has started regular live streams where he teaches you how to make doodles of his characters from his books (Piggy & Elephant, Pigeon, and more). Even if you aren’t familiar with the books, it’s a fun engaging way to watch someone create something in real time, and it’s even fun to join in and draw along.
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/
Hopefully those are relatively helpful.
Let me know other ways to stay engaged with the world, and to keep our minds and spirits active during this season.
See the change in this season to be a source of love and joy.
Help one another. Learn, live, grow.
And wash your hands.
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Day 20: Growth [40 Days of Listening]
“Same Drugs” by Chance the Rapper
This song is by Chance the Rapper who, as you might have guessed, is a rapper. In this song, however, Chance sings, and it’s quite beautiful in its simplicity and vulnerability. Chance sings about how he and his old friend don’t “do the same drugs” anymore. But this song isn’t about drugs (as Chance later said on his Twitter account).
The song is instead about growing apart from someone. “Do the same drugs” basically means we don’t have the same interests anymore. We don’t get moved and inspired by the same things that we used to, and so we’ve lost that connection that we once had. The things that used to bring us both joy no longer bring you joy.
This is a song of lament (but with some hope at the end).
The song has a simple motif of Peter Pan throughout: “Wendy you’ve aged,” “Window is closed, Wendy got old,” “Don’t forget your happy thoughts,” “when did you start to forget how to fly?” This adds a layer to the song of it not simply being about the end of a romance, but more deeply it’s about the end of a relationship. Wendy in the song has grown up and forgotten what it was like to fly, losing her childlike wonder.
The Peter Pan story, for all its basic children’s story narrative, is a rather nuanced tale about growing up and giving up the wonder and creativity that were hallmarks of childhood. It pushes back against that urge to “grow up,” not in the sense of some sort of arrested development that refuses to take responsibility, but rather it pushes back against the idea that maturity has no room for imagination and curiosity. It is saying that these are essential traits, not just for children but for all who truly want to live.
Christ says as much when he says that we have to come to him like children (which we talked about already on Day 4 and Day 7 – it’s almost like that story is central to understand what Jesus wants from us and we should keep coming back to it…).
The biggest problem that comes from this paradigm that asks us to “grow up” is that it supposes that we need to get ourselves figured out (as we talked about on Day 10) and stop learning. There is no place for curiosity and imagination if you live in a world where everything is black and white with no nuance, and no mystery. But that isn’t the world that we live in.
Growing is actually coming to realize that there will always be things that should make us smile in wonder. There will always be thing that make us laugh in confusion, saying, “How did that happen?” There will always be sunlight shining over the horizon beckoning us to stop and take a look at the sunrise and marvel. There will always be water that is begging us to cannonball into and make the biggest splash. God is calling us to marvel at the world because when we do, we see the beauty of creation – not simply as a thing to be preserved, but a thing to be loved and explored.
To see someone give that up is a sad thing.
A thing worth mourning.
A thing that says, “I’m done growing.”
When a tree stops growing, it starts dying.
One could say the same about us.
Let us be people who aren’t afraid to keep learning.
Let us not be blind to the wonder that God has for us in every sunrise.
Let us be people who never forget how it feels to fly.
Here is a link to “Same Drugs” by Chance the Rapper
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 19: Generations
"Shoot from the Hip" by PEABOD
This is another one where listening to the song first is helpful (watch the video here).
This song is from Isaac Peabody, who performs under the name PEABOD. Isaac was a singer songwriter who was trying to make it in the coffeehouse circuit. All the while, he was writing and recording hip-hop songs in his spare time for fun. Eventually, after encouragement from friends, he released the hip-hop album, which connected and took off in ways that his folk music never did.
This song directly addresses the difficulties of being a millennial – being vilified for being immature and impulsive, yet being the first generation in decades that is expected to have a more difficult time than the generation that came before them. They are coming into a world with more debt than any generation before (thanks to the exponential increase in college tuition – which has risen by nearly 200% in the last twenty years) with a job market unpromising. They are blamed for not participating the industries of the previous generations and are chastised for always being on their phones. They are seen by many in the church as being a big reason for the decline in the church over the last twenty years.
Millennials are roughly people born between 1980 and 2000, and so all of them at this point are adults between 39 and 20. They are the first generation to grow up entirely native to computers and the internet (rather than having to learn them later in life). Technology is a first language for them. Millennials are also statistically the most benevolent generation ever, giving more of their income and time to charity per capita than any other generation ever. They don’t have much money, so the total figure is lower than previous generations, but the percentage of personal wealth and time that millennials donate to charitable causes far out paces any previous generation.
They just aren’t giving it to the church. Largely because the church doesn’t know what to do with them.
The church model that most mainline churches have been operating with is one that is designed for the 1950s and has never been updated. We provide Christian Education for children from birth until they graduate from high school (and effectively graduate from church). We send them off to college and hope that they will connect with a college ministry during their time in school, but know that they will get married right out of college and have kids by 22, and then come back to the church to put their kids in our tremendous birth to high school children’s programming. One problem with this model, though (there are many) is that people don’t really get married at 22 anymore. They barely get married by 30. And even when they do get married, they often aren’t having kids until their mid to late 30s. So our model that was based on ceding four years to young people to go to college and get married before they come back to the church with kids of their own now has to contend with a ten to twenty year gap before millennials would likely come back to a church because of the children’s programming. We have yet to really create space for single people in their 20s and 30s in the church.
On top of that, we see a lot of millennials who are passionate about social justice and ending systematic oppression juxtaposed against a church in America that is increasingly less interested in social justice or ending oppression. More and more they are finding a church who’s main purpose appears to be survival – existing to make sure that they will still exist in the future. By and large, this generation has no interest in an institution that is in self-preservation mode.
And so they are seeking fulfillment in places that make a discearnable difference (humanitarian organizations) and in putting their pursuits of deeper meaning into places that aren’t afraid of questions. This is a generation that is also deeply curious about faith, but not a faith that looks like the desperate yet status quo faith that is so prevalent in much of the mainline churches in the current landscape.
They are passionate people who want to make a difference. And they often see the church as a place where making a difference isn’t one of the options.
Millennials in this way can help us hold up a mirror to ourselves as the church. The issues that millennials have with the church are issues that we should wrestle with. Why do most churches not have a robust, engaging adult ministry that is solely centered on caring for young children or being a retiree? What are we not offering to adults who have questions? What is the message that the church has for young people who have done everything “right,” yet are working at a barista and have $250,000 in student loans?
The church has a massive gap, and that gap has been there for a long time.
Let us be a people who have room for questions, and room for new voices.
Let us not get so comfortable in the way we’ve always done things to fear doing anything differently.
Let us be a church that is living an active, unafraid by preservation because we are too busy being the church to be concerned about how much longer our church can afford to do the ministry that we do.
Let us be willing to do things in a new way.
Let us be willing to know that God is still speaking, and sometimes, God likes to speak to the younger generations first.
Here is a link to “Shoot from the Hip” by PEABOD
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 18: Women in the Bible [40 Days of Listening]
"Samson" by Regina Spektor
The Bible has been used as a weapon by many ever since its canonization. It has been used to oppress, to justify wars, racism, economic disparity, prejudice, segregation, elitism, and countless other evils. One has to make selective and corrupt interpretations to find the Bible as a support for these atrocities, but with anything that wields that much power, many people have found profit in using the Bible to hold others down rather than to bless all people.
One of the most oppressed groups in this way throughout history has been women. The Bible has been used to subjugate, dismiss, and discredit women. They are viewed as the “helper,” not in the co-partner sense, but in a subordinate “Girl-Friday” sort of way. Woman’s voices have been silenced, their skills and gifts have been denied, and their agency has been removed all in the name of “following the Bible.”
This is not right. In fact, it is actively wrong – not in some revisionist sort of reading of the Bible, but in a culturally resonant reading of the scripture. Scripture does NOT tell us that there is a “fairer sex” or a “dominant sex” as part of God’s plan. The subjugation of women is part of a broken world that results from the Fall – from sin – and it has no place in God’s story of redemption for the world.
The Gospel story is impossible without the leadership and voices of women. Women were supporters and leaders in the early church even in a broken culture that forbade them power and agency and viewed their voices as having no authority or validity at all. Yet God used woman to carry the church forward. Woman were the only ones to have eyewitness experience of the risen Christ on Resurrection Day. According to the law of the time, none of those accounts would be seen as reliable, yet these are the voices that are lifted up as the ones that we should hear and believe. Scripture isn’t often in the business of reinforcing our social structures and norms, it is in the business of challenging them. Why would God’s plan for the world put some people as subordinate to others? Why would God value people of a certain gender, race, or nationality over others? That does not describe a God who is truly filled with grace and love for all people, nor does it describe a perfect creation. So if we have an understanding of scripture that point to subordination or subjugation of anyone, it cannot be a right understanding of a God who is love.
The song today draws on the story of Delilah, the woman in the Samson story who is often viewed as a “femme fatal” or a deceptive woman who is merely using a man to her own devices. The story in the bible doesn’t actually tell us this. It doesn’t really tell us much at all about Delilah. We have to bring that to the narrative. It does tell us a lot about Samson, who is far from a hero. He murders dozens of people for various reasons (for instance, he loses a bet on his wedding day, where he has to provide 30 sets of garments as payment, so he kills 30 people and steals their clothes), yet we view Samson as one of the heroes of the bible. Even his big act of “redemption” is pushing over columns to knock over a building so that he can murder hundreds of people at once. And yet, we view Delilah as the villain.
This song suggests a different story. A story of love and loss. A human story. It is still a tragedy, but one of real people, not flannel graph cut outs from a Sunday school teacher.
As we tell the story of our faith, let us be sure that we are telling the story of real people. The Bible is not a book of heroes and villains, it is a book of people who are all flawed and incredibly, terribly, beautifully human. It is the story of God working through those people and in spite of those people to bring about a story of redemption, wholeness, and above all – a story of love. It is a story of empowering and redeeming people, not a story of diminishing or oppressing people.
This is a story of emancipation, not only from the tyranny of sin, but also from the tyranny of systems that would hold people down based on economics, race, gender, orientation, or nationality.
This is a story of hope.
And unless that hope is for ALL people, then it is not hope, it is tyranny.
And that is not good news.
That is not the story of God.
Let us be sure that we are telling (and living) God’s story.
A God who is good. All the time.
Here is a link to “Samson” by Regina Spektor
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 17: Revitalization [40 Days of Listening]
"Just What I Needed" by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox
One day long ago, I stumbled upon a most unusual thing on YouTube called “Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox.” It was a series of videos of covers of modern pop music, which in and of itself is not odd. These one’s however were covers of modern pop song, but done in the style of previous eras of pop music. You could find Katy Perry’s “Roar” done in the style of the 60’s Motown, Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” sung as a Rockabilly song, Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop” sung as a 50’s doo wop song, Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” as a Gatsby 1920s romp, Kesha’s “Die Young” as a wild west hoe down, The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” as a New Orleans dirge, and scores of others. It still remains a wonderful deep dive into some of the most creative parts of what the internet has to offer. I still recommend it as a nice rabbit hole to fall into if you happen to find yourself with some time on your hands (say, because of a quarantine against a rising global pandemic, if that were to ever happen…).
What I immediately loved about the videos was hearing these familiar songs in such different ways. In many cases, it took a song that I wasn’t that big of a fan of, and it made me realize that the song itself was much better than I had thought. The irony was that it took a modern song being sung in a style from a bygone era to make me hear it in a new way. In order to become new, it had to be revisited through the lens of the past.
There is much made out of the notion of church revitalization. Ever since the dissolution of Christendom (the imperialist Christianity of the 15th-19th centuries that evolved into the status-quo, nominal Christianity of the 20th century) became evident, the church has been in a spiral to figure out what the trick is to hold on to the institution of the church. The answer for several decades seemed to be model ourselves after business, viewing members as customers to be given a product. This led to the favorite answer of the last few decades: PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS! The church very quickly became a place not where we went to serve others, but where we went to be served. We were given a something to meet our needs, but that something was less and less about Jesus than it was about the church brand itself. We were selling the church rather than sharing Jesus.
To put it plainly, this didn’t work. The church has been given a boost as an institution, but this hasn’t made the Body of Christ stronger. Christians in America are less known for their Christ-like qualities (love, inclusion, selflessness, generosity, justice seekers) than they are for their politics and their comfortable relationship with the status quo.
[An important note – there’s nothing wrong with programs. They can be great, but they are to be the means, not the end.]
Revitalization isn’t a gimmick or something to do out of desperation. Revitalization is to find renewed life. It is to hear a familiar song in a brand new way (that is actually a brand old way). The reformers in the Reformation saw this. They weren’t trying to start something new. They were trying to reclaim the purpose of the church which we had forgotten a long time ago. They saw the means of doing this was by going back to the sources – actually reading and learning the Bible, which was a novel idea in an era in which Bibles were written exclusively in Latin, a language only understood by priests and scholars. The notion of lay person being able to read the bible on their own seemed dangerous, and ultimately a threat to the power and authority of the church. Yet the church was renewed and revitalized by the Reformation, taking a new song, but seeing it through an old lens.
As we seek revitalization as a church, we shouldn’t be seeking trendy or gimmicky things, chasing after the crowds. First, anything we try to copy, someone else is already doing it better – many churches put a lot of effort into being coffee shops, restaurants, concert halls, community centers, and libraries. We can do much that well, but not as well as actual coffee shops, restaurants, concert halls, community centers, and libraries.
What we can offer that is unique is purpose, but we can’t offer that if we don’t understand what our purpose even is.
We can offer community, but there is a big difference between a bunch of people who happen to meet at the same place each week and true community that knows each other, trusts each other, and cares for each other.
In order to find the beauty in the song, sometimes we have to take it back out of this context to hear what it’s really about.
Let us not think that the church is something that it isn’t. The church is not a business. The church is not something that needs to be protected. The church is something that needs to be alive.
The church is something that needs to be lived out.
The church is something that should be a blessing to all people, to roll up our sleeves and get into the dirty work of caring for people in a way that defines us.
Sometimes we need to look back so that we can go forward.
Then can hear the songs we should be singing.
And then we need to sing them.
Even on days when we don’t feel like singing.
Click here to listen “Just What I Needed” by Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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(Sabbath 3) “Merry Go Round of Life”
"Merry Go Round of Life" by Vitamin String Quartet
This is the third Sunday in Lent.
Sabbath.
On Sabbath, I simply give you an instrumental track to listen to without much context (other than to use it to take a few moments of rest).
This song is originally from "Howl's Moving Castle," a Japanese animated movie by renowned director Hayao Miyazaki. It has been rearranged by the Vitamin String Quartet, a string quartet which makes arrangements of popular songs.
Rest today. God gave you today, and today is good.
Here is a link to “Merry Go Round of Life" by Vitamin String Quartet
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 16: Perspective [40 Days of Listening]
"I Like Giants" by Kimya Dawson
When I was 8 years old, my family took a trip out west. We started in Iowa and hit virtually every tourist landmark you would want a postcard from in about two weeks. So much of the trip overall was memorable, but the stop that struck me the most was when we went to the Grand Canyon. There is something about it that is just too big. If you’ve been there, I imagine that you know what I mean. To see it in pictures, it is impressive, but to see it in real life it is too big. I doesn’t fit into a rational understanding of what you are anticipating to see. But it is just too big for you to fathom.
The bigness of the Grand Canyon is frightening. Not in the sense that it is going to come and get you in the middle of the night, but that it is so big that you are in shock, and tentative along its edges. This fear is not terror (unless you are legitimately afraid of heights) but rather it is awe. An awareness that the world is a much bigger place that we try to make it out to be.
One of the common themes of the Bible is that we are to fear God. But it is not the fear of someone who will punish you, but rather the fear that is like that fear for the Grand Canyon – it is awe. A sense of our smallness in the face of God’s enormity.
This song by Kimya Dawson deals with a sense of this perspective. We are so very small, just “a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye.”
Moreover, our fears and flaws are even smaller.
At the end of the book of Job, after Job has suffered a loss of family, fortune, and health, he cries out to God to help him make sense of why all of this is happening to him. God responds by telling Job that the world is bigger than he knows, too big for him to understand, but that God is bigger than all of it – God created all of it. So even when we are in the midst of suffering and struggles that we cannot comprehend, know that there is nothing so big that God cannot redeem it, nothing so big that God is not bigger.
As we stand on the precipice of the unknown the illness and other global struggles that overwhelm us, let us not look down at all that could harm us in fear; let us look around at all that God has created in awe. Let us see the beauty of those that would be helpers. The beauty of science and medicine that would help us to treat and heal from illness. The beauty and stillness of forced time off – time to reflect and to be present with family in ways we had not planned before this week.
Know that God is bigger than all that would harm us.
Know that God is enabling us to see that there is good in the world around us.
Know that there is beauty in each day, and that we are to find that beauty and share it with those around us.
Live in awe of a God so big that it makes no sense.
Click here to listen “I Like Giants” by Kimya Dawson
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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Day 15: Surviving [40 Days of Listening]
"This Year" by The Mountain Goats
As I write this, the entire world is shutting down around us.
There has not been a global crisis like this in near any of our lives.
Culturally, we haven’t had a national shutdown like this since 9/11. And the most disconcerting part is that we aren’t really sure where this goes from here. All we know for sure as of now is that there is no sports and no more toilet paper.
Yet, if all of the precautions that we are doing work, then nothing really happens. We eventually go back to regular life and forget about what it felt like to not know if we’d be okay.
Biologists tell us that the pain of natural childbirth is some of the most intense physical pain humans will go through. Yet your body releases a natural dopamine right after the birth to make you forget the pain, and to be willing to do it again.
While that’s the most intense example of this phenomena, your body is constantly doing that – helping you to forget just how hard the pain was once you have survived. The fear, the worry, the anxiety all start to fade once we have made it safely to the other side. We may have memories of the pain and suffering, but the often are like faded Polaroids, the kind we look back on with a detachment that feels like we are looking at someone different than us.
Sometimes surviving is enough.
One of my favorite movies of the last ten years is the movie Dunkirk.
It takes place just after the battle of Dunkirk in France and the onset of World War II.
The British and French forces lost to the Germans and were pushed back to the coastline of the English Channel, separating the British troops from where they were in newly Nazi-occupied France and the safety of the British Isles.
The entire movie takes place after the battle has been lost, and it simply tells the story of the troops waiting for a rescue, for a way back home – unsure if anyone will come to rescue them in time. Eventually, they are saved by dozens upon dozens of small private fishing boats that braved the waters of the channel to fill their boats with as many British soldiers as they could.
When the troops finally reach British soil again, they disembark as those who have failed.
But they are greeted as those who have won. Celebrated by the citizens, handed beers, embraced as returning heroes.
Because the battle that day was not about winning.
It was about surviving.
I imagine this is in some way how the prodigal son in Jesus’ story felt when he returned home as a failure but was greeted as an honored guest. The father didn’t care about the many ways in which his son had failed. All he cared about was that his son – this son he had thought was dead – this son had survived.
Sometimes surviving is the victory.
Perhaps 2020 feels that way for you already. For many, this outbreak of COVID-19 is little more than a two week break from their routine. For some, especially those who are immunocompromised, it is a terrifying time of vulnerability. For many who are now without work from the industries that have shut down, it is a terrifying time of financial uncertainty. For all of us, the task is to survive it - physically, emotionally, financially.
And the best part about surviving something scary is that pretty soon after, we will forget how bad it was.
I think God does this because living is more important than dying, and it would be a shame for any of us to be so afraid of dying that we should forget to live. This is a unique time when the fear of death is closer to us than usual, and so it is a time when we value and hold up the lives of one another in unique ways.
Let us do all that we can to care for one another – which may mean giving people more space that you usually do, staying home more than usual, and washing your hands as much as you possibly can.
Because we can survive this together.
And sometimes surviving is all we need to do.
Take care of yourselves, and each other.
May God bless you and keep you.
May God’s face shine upon you.
May God be gracious to you
And grant you peace.
We’re going to be okay.
Click here to listen “This Year” by The Mountain Goats
Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.
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