“When can we get back to normal?” -everyone
Are you everyone? I am. I have asked this question. My children have asked it. I have been asked this question by some of you while standing six feet apart in the grocery store. Your congregational leaders have asked this when they have met and planned for fall. It is a question you will ask as you read through the contents of this newsletter.
We miss the comfort of being able to plan activities and events without fear of having to do contact tracing in the weeks following them. We miss sending our kids off to school on the first day with a great sigh of relief and the freedom that parents are afforded in those blissful hours while they are at school. We miss the days when we could walk into a store mask free. We long to embrace one another, to sit close and share joys and sorrows with our family and neighbors.
This query is one that doesn’t have an answer we want to hear. I don’t know when we will get back to normal. The truth is, none of us knows. The hard truth is we may never “get back to normal”. This season has changed us. It has altered the way we are called to live and be together. It has challenged the fundamentals of nearly every human interaction that we can imagine.
We are suffering the loss of normalcy. Our suffering may take different shapes, we may grieve losses differently, but as a people of God we are united in our sorrow, in the loss of what was. The appropriate biblical response to suffering is lament, a passionate expression of grief. Lament is a form of prayer and song found primarily in the book of Psalms. Psalm 13 in particular begins with a question for our time: “How long, Lord?” It is the question we are asking when we wonder when we will get back to normal. Behind the question is a human acknowledgement that enough is enough. We are tired and want to move on.
We pray:
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
When moving through a challenging time, doesn’t this feel true? Do you ever feel abandoned by God? Always remember even when we feel something, it doesn’t mean that feeling reflects truth. Having the courage to pray, “How Long, O Lord?” opens us to the nature of our relationship with God. It is a relationship forged in the shape of a promise. It is a covenant made in faith that remains unseen in this time and place.
Our prayer continues:
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome them,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
When we are feeling overwhelmed, it is not uncommon to ask those around us to see and hear our worries and stress. We are asking in this prayer for God to see and hear us. We are begging that God look upon God’s servants with compassion and care that the enemy might not win the day. We implore God to give us understanding and hope.
We conclude:
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for God has been good to me.
Turning to God in our times of sorrow and fear we acknowledge that there is something bigger and greater at work than the sum of our acts and intentions. We recognize the one who fashioned the universe and called us into being has not abandoned us but continues still to love and care for us. God is our God and we are God’s people subject to God’s authority and purpose. In our humanness, we cannot and ought not know the mind and heart of God. We are given freedom in this relationship to name what is troublesome and difficult. We are blessed to be able to cry out for mercy and hope when God and the gifts of God feel lost to us.
Jesus told his disciples in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble, take heart. I have overcome the world.” We know that we are facing a long and challenging road and we wonder and pray, “How long, O Lord?” The end of this battle with Covid-19 and all the other troubles we face in our daily lives are difficult. Normal is not likely going to return to us because everything in this life changes as often as the seasons and sometimes more. We are not in control of this day and its cares. We are called in faith to turn to God and lament naming and lifting up our frustrations and fears. After the “Amen” we are called to listen to the abiding love of God that calls us to faith. Despite the troubles we face in this world, God through Christ Jesus is stronger than the strongest enemy. God is ushering us toward a new normal that is as yet unseen. May we be blessed with patience as God continues to be our God and prepare us for the coming of God’s kingdom.
