Being Active in the World

Written by Pastor Kate

Can we talk about perspective for a minute?

For me, the rainy morning yesterday started with a trip to the dentist, where I found out I’d have to have a root canal. It was followed by hearing that I wouldn’t get my broken laptop back until next week, discovering that much of the milk that I’d agreed to drop off at a food shelf for an acquaintance was spoiled, and then driving around my part of town looking for a pharmacy that was open (my regular ones are still closed after the Uprising).

In any other time, I would have been losing my mind at this litany of stressors. And yesterday, it barely touched me (I mean, a root canal is a little scary). I think that I intellectually used to understand that these things don’t matter, but my heart and body hadn’t caught up yet. My sense of what stress is, what is important, and what can be simply dealt with has changed so much since we were last together before Spring Break. I wonder if anything has changed for you? Would you drop me an email and let me know?

As I take stock of that change, it’s forcing me to reckon with my previous self and her priorities, and walk into the future with more humility and gentleness than I would have thought possible 6 months ago. I’m trying to notice, and practice, these virtues so that they might take root in me. They may just be teachers for life.

Whether it’s exploring the impacts of racism within yourself and/or our city and country, making decisions about appropriate risks regarding the pandemic we’re still in the midst of, or considering what it means to live faithfully in these times, we are in the middle of it.

And friends, so was the early church. The ground they were standing on felt shaky – Spirit-led – but still shaky. Tomorrow, at Lectio Lunch Hour, we’re going to listen together to the ways they learned how to find their center, connecting with God and one another, and spreading that love in the world. If you can take a quick 15-minute break tomorrow at noon, I’d love to see you on Insta.

The amazing thing about the early church is that its adherents understood the work they were doing in the world as much a part of “being church,” as when they were gathered together to pray and give thanks to God. They were always on the move, and their gatherings were always sending them out, into the world, to love and serve. This early church was on to something there too – not just because it’s the “right thing to do,” but because loving our neighbors, and being in our bodies, is good for us too.

I hope you can find some time this week to both consider what it means to love your neighbor, and then figure out some ways to actually do it! Maybe that means wearing a mask when no one around you is doing that and encouraging your peers to do the same. Maybe that means joining together with other LCM’ers to serve in Minneapolis, near to where the Uprising happened. Maybe it’s figuring out a way to raise some money for a cause you believe in. Maybe it’s simply reading along with LCM’s Summer Read-Along, “Me and White Supremacy.”

Whatever it is, just pick something, commit to it, and do it! You will be better for making that commitment, and the world will be better for your engagement in it. I’m betting you’ll catch a glimpse of the Kin-dom of God in the midst of it all.