Today I met an obstacle in my path, a fallen pine tree with significant rot in in it. You can see it was a minor inconvenience a quick re-adjustment and skip over the log to carry on.
Some obstacles in life are much greater than this. I remember many years ago tramping up Mt. Manuoha in the Urewera after a big storm, the track being virtually impassable with great trees to be negotiated.
I feel for the young ones in this Covid season. It is a far greater percentage of their lives than to those of us who have been around a while. My daughter is doing an arts degree. The first two years of a three year programme have been totally disrupted. Any friendships she might have made will likely be post-university now. More disruption is to come, with the ongoing mitigations that will be in place till the pandemic is finished. This occurs on top of any other unexpected challenges for all of us.
In church leadership, or in any kind of leadership, the danger is a kind of inertia, a tendency to just sit because all in-person programmes are cancelled. We felt it at running club committee this week as we thought about a summer schedule. We achieved little, maybe Friday Covid announcements will shed more light? Planning contingencies at the moment seen more like wading through swamp than log-hopping.
After our session zoom meeting on Tuesday, at which we considered various forward planning initiatives, many of which are alert level dependent, I stepped out into the cool night and saw the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus all in a line. It was momentarily breathtaking and stilled me in wonder. It reminded me that ultimately God is in control. The God who can speak the Solar System and even the Universe into being can surely walk with us through the Covid season?
We live by faith, and this is real in the here and now. There are obstacles in the way, but they can shape and teach us as we go, making us strong. I am reminded of the words of Apostle Paul:
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2 Cor 4: 16-18 NRSVA)
We walk through this momentary affliction with the God that made the universe. Rest in that.