Dear Friends and Family of RRUMC,
Interruption or disruption? I was reading an article recently that talked about the church on the other side of this pandemic.
We have heard many say that they cannot wait to, “Get back to normal”, “Get through this”, or “Get this behind us.” It is as if it is just an interruption to what we always have done and we just have to get back there. Think about all of the things that are different and probably will forever be different than they were before COVID. How many of you have done curbside pick-up at the grocery store, Target, Wal-Mart, or Lowes? How many of you are now very familiar with Door Dash, Grub Hub, or Uber Eats? My family still uses many of those just because they are so convenient and not necessarily because of COVID.
Church, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you feel, is different on the other side of it as well. We have learned how to be community in new ways. We have learned how to reach the community in new ways. We have learned how to reach out and how to bring people in in new and exciting ways. We had to do that because COVID stole all our “normal ways” of being and doing church. That is why I asked the question earlier.
Is COVID an interruption or is it a disruption? Is it something just temporarily in the way of our NORMAL or has COVID disrupted us into new ways of being the church?
I think the key for RRUMC is to realize that it has been a disruption with holy implications. God is working in the midst of the disruption and at times God will use those disruptions as the very tool to lead us to new ministries and new people that we may not have reached prior to COVID.
Isaiah 4:1-3 says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
God not only knows how deep the waters can get, he is down in the water with us. When the fires close in on us, he is the one that holds them at bay and keeps us from getting burned. He does not say that there will never be deep waters or scorching flames.
We are to ask what lessons we can learn in the deep waters and while surrounded by the scorching flames. As we look back and look forward, how will RRUMC use COVID as a holy disruption that launches us into a “NEW NORMAL” on the other side?
May God bless and keep you safe now and forevermore.
Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Dan