Being Present in the World

Written by Pastor Kate

I just returned from a week’s vacation up North. It was a good mix of idyllic (loons in the lake in front of our little camper cabin!), and #2020 (nestled into a storm shelter with too many people, not physically distanced, while we waited for a tornado to pass by our campground). There is so much that I’m reflecting on as I return from this separation back to my work, and COVID, and the chaos of the daily news. I don’t think I was away long enough to truly rest, but rest with a 4 and 6-year-old rarely happens anyway.

I do know that I was away long enough to take stock of how I might want to live the next six months of uncertainty in a different way than I’ve lived the last six months, and especially the last six weeks.

Maybe you feel like you’ve been on high alert, too? Did you see that I made 2020 a hashtag? It’s been, hmmm, *something.* If we were first driven to our coping mechanisms by fear or anxiety or boredom, they’ve certainly now become habits. For me, constant scrolling is my go-to – when I’m bored, or scared, or anxious, or any number of things. I wonder what it is for you?

Here’s the thing – you can keep that thing. God is with you, and even, perhaps, active in that coping. You don’t have to exorcise it from your life, but you might want to take stock of the ways it’s getting in the way of your relationship with God, with one another, and with the ways you want to live. Whether it’s mask-wearing, or showing up for racial justice actions, or simply centering yourself in the love of God, sometimes the thing that we most want to do is impeded by the thing we’ve been programmed to do.

At LCM, we’re now knee-deep in discerning what this next year will be, and how we can come alongside you as you return to a very different campus, in a very different world. Would you please take this 2-question survey? It’ll help us to know where you’re at and what you’re looking for as we begin to do our work.