short thought

A letter to the UK from Italy: this is what we know about your future

The part that I found particularly pointed:

"Class, however, will make all the difference. Being locked up in a house with a pretty garden or in an overcrowded housing project will not be the same. Nor is being able to keep on working from home or seeing your job disappear. That boat in which you’ll be sailing in order to defeat the epidemic will not look the same to everyone nor is it actually the same for everyone: it never was."

As someone who has already experienced six months out of work and yet has only had to make marginal changes to their lifestyle, this speaks to me very eloquently. I am waaaaaay above the waterline compared to many of the people who've lost their work in the last two weeks, who will be desperate in another two. My experience of joblessness is not even close to the struggle that many people are going to experience. That is luck, or the grace of God - not His blessing, which is given with deliberation, but His grace - unearned, undeserved. There are doubtless people more worthy in much harder positions: I make no claim to being better or more righteous, just fortunate to have opportunities to have made good on the solid base I was given.

And it's not just 'class', but a whole set of privileges (yes, they are privileges) that gives And yes, this makes me think about how we can make opportunities for those who aren't so lucky to have a solid family of love, friends she can rely on, a godly community of God, no history of abuse, no major medical issues, the best education, in a society that at least legally counts her a person and equal to everyone else, however flawed it may be in the practice.

Christ and coronavirus

I'm not afraid of dying. I'm a little afraid of suffering.

I'm more afraid of having spread the virus to other people who might die.

I'm most afraid of not having done enough (or, really, anything) to bring people to Christ.

how to be 'church' in the midst of pandemic

'Reflections on community in the midst of pandemic'

A lot of churchgoers seem really worried that not meeting in person will somehow 'break' the church. Which...yes, community is at the heart of 'the church', but that community is not magically created by meeting together and it's not magically destroyed by ceasing to do so. It's the care and concern that can be communicated through phonecalls, requests and offers to pray or give aid, and loving acts that may be able to be done even when the recipient is not present.

Is it hard to have a worship service when everyone is in disparate locations? Yes, it rather is. But church? Church is the people of God working together towards His purpose. We can do that anywhere, anytime, not just in a church building at a worship service. It's just not 'church' the nice convenient way that we've become accustomed to doing it.

Change is not a bad thing, just a difficult one.