There’s a whole lotta ugly in the world right now and I was going to include some of my thoughts, but it got a bit more involved than I wanted to share on Pentecost weekend (our first weekend back in church). I’ll share the other when it’s percolated a bit more.

un-lockdown

The word officially came down last Saturday – churches could again re-open. We suspected that the announcement was in the tubes, but it wasn’t yet official. Announcing it Saturday, of course, meant it was a bit too fast of a turnaround to organize things for last Sunday, so we opted to wait.

Coming out of lockdown looks different for different churches. The larger churches will have significant procedures to put in place, so some will not re-open for another couple of weeks.

Just like in basketball, where smaller players are often a bit more agile, as a smaller church, we have fewer people therefore making the people-management part of opening-up a bit easier.

We spent hours down at the church this week, getting things ready and will be down again later today. While mowing this week, I caught this bee taking off from the blackberry bushes that are coming into flower. Honestly, apart from the Lord, it’s by finding the beauty in nature that I’m able to find balance with respect to all of the nasty in the world. Thankfully… we’re surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation.

Pentecost

On one hand, how appropriate it is that our first service back will be on Pentecost Sunday… the birth-day of the church.

While Liz & the kids & I were there for prayer last night, we felt a great sense of both relief and anticipation.

Coming back to church does not mean “a return to normal”… I don’t want to return to normal. I want to see far better than normal. Please pray with us to that effect.

God bless you this week.