Better Together
Just like all of you, these past days have meant changes in our household rhythm. This past Sunday was very different than our norm. We did not head over to meeting place of Grace Fellowship for worship, teaching, and serving time with our faith family and community. Instead, we came in pj’s with bedheads and bibles in tow to sit around our living room and tune into a live streaming of GFC leaders gathering us together to that we might be united in worship and fed with God’s Truth. It was a little weird, but also quite wonderful. Though we were physically scattered, we were reminded of how we are supernaturally connected. Through the daily reading of Psalm 90 at Titus’s prompting, we would also remember who God is and where our Home lies. And at the closing of the passage, I love thinking of us all asking this of Him together:
“May Your deeds be shown to your servants, Your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.”
For in this passage, we acknowledge that this is not a time to be paralyzed, but mobilized, for God has work for us to do and it is work that will glorify and magnify Him. At no time in my lifetime have I ever sensed more of a need for a personal relationship with the One and Only Savior of the whole wide, world!
And so, after gathering via livestream Sunday, we started group texting our friends and thinking together about how in that day we might not be paralyzed, but mobilized to reach out to a vulnerable population just a short walk away. We decided to craft a short list of some of those in our neighborhood (like the older population or those who might have some existing health concerns) who might need to know that someone is nearby who cares about them. We then wrote a short note with our contact info included and we set out on foot with some of our kiddos for door-to-door delivery.
We tried not to be too pushy, nor too scary, with only one of us heading up at each doorstep and standing back a good bit after knocking or ringing the bell. Though at some homes, we just left the envelope in the door, the interactions with those who opened were for the most part very precious. We learned that one neighbor had passed away a month ago, that another had fallen off a stepstool and was recovering from some injuries, and that one lady who lived alone was absolutely hilarious and super glad to have met us. While we didn’t have anyone who spoke of a need, we did further some connectedness, and in the process, we saw God in those we came face-to-face with that day. My hope is that we can and will continue to seek opportunities like this ongoing in this strange time we are walking through. My prayer is that we will remember that we are better together and that our work as The Church shifts, but does not stop, for there is a broken and vulnerable world before us that needs Jesus more than ever.
God is God.
God is with us.
God is good.
God is working good.
Sanja Lyon
