Greetings,

There have been a few events in the past 100 years that have brought about a different way of doing life. Remember when you had to find a pay phone to make a important call? I remember standing in line to rent not only a VHS tape (video home system) but the entire VCR (Videocassette Recorder) for a family movie night. Many of you could share stories of times when life looked vastly different than today. I am too young to remember waiting in line for gasoline because your license plate ended with an odd number. To someone who didn’t experience it, that might seem crazy. Daylight Savings Time was instituted during both world wars to conserve energy, and now that's just a part of normal life for us. I have friends and relatives that have told me of how it was a normal thing for them to ride a horse to school when they were children. Times have changed in many ways.

It is amazing to me to think of how traditions and cultural norms came to be and how the effects can linger for generations. It reminds me of a story that I heard many years ago: A husband and his wife were in their kitchen. The husband was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper while his wife was preparing a ham for dinner. The husband watched the wife cut off about one inch from either end of the ham. He asked why she cut the end off, proclaiming “that’s a waste of good ham!” She said “that’s the way my mom prepared the ham.” The husband asked “why did your mom cut the ends off?” The wife didn’t know.

So, she called her mom to find out why she cut the ends of the ham off. Her mom said “because that was the way my mom prepared ham.” Although her grandma had passed away several years earlier, her grandpa was still living, so she called and asked “Grandpa, why did Grandma cut the ends off of the ham?” He was silent as he thought for a moment. Then he replied, “so the ham could fit in the baking pan.”

Times like this cause us to consider why we do what we do. We tighten our budgets, remove anything that is unnecessary, and we are left with only what we truly value. Maybe there is a good reason we keep traditions in place and maybe there become clear reasons to release those traditions and embrace something new. Maybe it will be necessary to go back to the ways and means that we operated before this quarantine or maybe we won’t. There are bound to be some long-lasting changes that will undoubtedly cause our children and grandchildren to ask why do we do that. We can’t predict and know with certainty what will change. For some people this can bring about anxiety and worry. We can, however, look at history and see what has happened and take comfort knowing that the Lord has proven to be faithful as He promises to work all things together for good for those that love Him. In the end, things that don’t make sense to us now will become clear.

As a church I feel extraordinarily blessed that we are a very simple church and that we value the basics of scripture. I am thankful that we do not own a building right now or have a lot of staff that we would have to lay off. The principles of loving the Lord and obeying Him by making disciples, proclaiming the good news in word and deed, owning the responsibility as the priesthood of all believers to do the work of reconciling people to God, and speaking the truth in love to one another through this time is vital.

We will have to continue to adapt to an ever-changing world. It should be of no surprise to any believer that there are going to be widespread changes that will probably last for decades after this strange time that we are experiencing, because of the virus mitigation efforts. That is okay.

The manner of how we worship in some capacities may change but who we worship will never change!

Love ya,
Chris