today has been Sunday all day long, but I confess, it didn’t seem like Sunday at all to me.  What makes Sunday – well, Sunday – is different for each person, I’m sure. For me, Sunday means sitting in church surrounded by friends and strangers, all of us singing, worshiping, learning, gathering in some truth from God’s word, some wisdom, some hope and some encouragement to help us face whatever the coming week will bring.

Sunday church is a rest stop along the way, a refueling station, a place to come as I am, be accepted and leave a new creation.  It is a place to lay down my burden and take up my cross – which fills my life with meaning and purpose.  For me, Sunday is about experiencing and celebrating my faith in community with others.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  (Hebrews 10:25)

Unfortunately, at the present time, we are forced to give up meeting together in order to accomplish the greater good of protecting each of us from this current corona virus. Technology has stepped in to fill the gap and that is gallant of her but I am finding her a poor substitute for the real thing.

Now I understand why sports lovers spend big bucks to go sit on hard bleachers to watch and cheer on their favorite sports team, when they could just as easily (and more cheaply) watch the game from the comfort of a recliner in their own home and have a better view of the game’s action as a bonus.  There is no substitute for being there in person, sharing the experience with a community of people who are just as fanatical about the team you love as you are.  The shared, face to face, personal experience is what it is all about.

We are created for connection.  We are created for community.  We do not thrive in isolation.  Isolation is actually harmful to us.  With fear spreading faster than this virus and lingering longer, it is becoming hard to distinguish the ailment from the cure.  They both have a lot of ill effects.

As imposed self isolation and social distancing continue to be the new norm, we are relying more on technology to fill the void.  I am grateful to her for doing her best, from e-learning to live streaming to video conferencing, she is doing all she can do to be all things to all people.  We would be worse off without her help.  But we are also realizing just how far short technology falls in the face of the face to face encounter.

There is no substitute for a hug and a hand shake.  We are finding that out as what we took for granted before – personal interaction – is no longer a part of our daily lives.  Sunday won’t be truly Sunday for me until community is restored to it once again.

So I confess, I am having trouble knowing what day of the week it is, without the schedule that was in place prior to the appearance of COVID-19.  Without a workweek there is no TGIF.  Although, this could be a chance for Monday to lose her bad reputation and become a more popular day of the week.  Time will tell.

In the meantime, I will wait for the day when I can say with David in Psalm 122:1,

“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.  Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.”

what a welcome day that will be!

sincerely,      Grace Day