Items

• 
  2020-03-18

  Covid in Jax

  Covid took away the freedom to hangout with friends.
• 2021-01-07

  A Virtual Funeral is Now Normal

  On January 7, 2021 I attended a virtual funeral service for a friend's husband. This was the first time I had seen an online funeral. It was streamed on Youtube while the closest family and friends attended in person. I watched the service from my phone alone at work. It felt surreal. I recognized several friends on the tiny screen with familiar voices, but it felt far away. Since then I have spoken to a few people and mentioned how I felt disconnected to be on the other side of the screen. Many others had similar stories about these kinds of services. It was now normal to experience these things, but I can't shake the feeling of how much the experience continues to bother me. I hope some day online services won't be necessary.
• 
  2020-08-09

  Worship seems so lonely now.

  With this isolation it's hard to feel a connection when your fellow worshipers aren't there with you. The friendly faces aren't there anymore and you're stuck feeling lonely. You can watch a video or listen to the broadcast in your car outside the church but it's lost its familiarity. We miss the people around us and are losing that comfort of others in worship and in song. We may even feel disconnected to our spirituality because of it. But it's something we just have to deal with to keep others safe. Even the Psalmist felt lonely. He described himself as a lonely bird sitting atop the roof of house and waiting for the Lord (Psalm 102:7). Perhaps we all just have to wait.