By PASTOR TONY
March 12th, 2021
Springtime is coming, today I awoke to the sound of birds chirping by my window. I opened my window and took in the scent of this transitional season. Springtime is coming. I’ve heard tales of azaleas beginning to bloom, robins spotted in the sky, signs of spring nearing Illinois. Soon enough, it will be Easter. Families will be in church with splashes of light blue, pink, yellow—signs of Spring. It’s on the horizon. Our English word “lent” is, in fact, only the shortened version of the Old English word “lencten” meaning “spring season.” For weeks we’ve known, spring is coming soon. But are we ready? Are you ready?
Maybe your first inclination is to respond with a resounding “YES!” But have you considered what this means? We’ve been waiting for a long time. Waiting and waiting and waiting. I’m not just referring to winter. It’s more than that. It’s this seemingly unending season of disparaging community, superimposed isolation, and elongated limitation. Friends, this new season has been a long time coming. Today we call it, Spring.
Soon enough, we’ll find ourselves in a new season as the longer we wait, the longer we get used to waiting. By now, we patiently expect to wait. Not because we like it, or want to, but because it’s become our way of life. My sincere fear is that we’ll find ourselves in that long-awaited season and still be waiting. Spring is coming soon and before we know it, we’ll look around, maybe at the birds, or the sky, or the sweat on our arms and say we’re nearing summer.
How much have we missed; taken for granted; longed for throughout this season? Is anyone else concerned about what it will be like when we get those things back? Maybe you think “concerned” is the wrong word. I hope it is. Maybe “excited” is the better word. I do hope so. I hope that when we finally arrive, we won’t still feel like we’re waiting.
“My sincere fear is that we’ll find ourselves in that long-awaited season and still be waiting. Spring is coming soon and before we know it, we’ll look around, maybe at the birds, or the sky, or the sweat on our arms and say we’re nearing summer.”
Today I received a message from the Bishop of the IGRC that because of the ongoing decrease in transmissions and cases of COVID-19, churches in our conference have been given the go-ahead to resume congregational singing, with some safety precautions in place. I was ecstatic! We’ve been waiting for this announcement for a year! But my fear remains, as we begin to get back that which we’ve lost, will we still feel like we’re waiting?
It’s okay to wait, in fact, a lot of times it’s a good thing! However, while we wait and while we continue to receive, we must be careful to not take these things for granted. We have been given much and in this prolonged season we have realized what we’ve lost on an intense level; access to unveiled community, communal worship through singing, fellowship with food… coffee at small group and much more. Slowly and surely many of these things will come back; my prayer is that we’ll rejoice all the more when they do, that we won’t find ourselves in the waiting any more. Of course, we’ll be pressing on for more, but we won’t be waiting. My question for you this week is, when will the waiting stop?