I’ll admit scripture memorization hasn’t been my thing. In Donald Whitney’s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life he brings up how Jesus was able to stand the temptations of the devil by quoting Scripture. What he didn’t mention though was all the scripture Jesus quoted was from Deuteronomy. Think Deuteronomy is an old boring book of the Old Testament? Apparently there’s enough there to ward of the devil! Maybe you should reconsider reading it?
So much strangeness. Two weeks ago my Spiritual Transformation professor had a family emergency, and couldn’t make class. Last week he was out of town. This week the corona virus has got everything closed down.
I’m having a bit of a struggle internally/spiritually with what should the response of a church (any church really) be in light of what the government and health authorities have asked us to do. “Stay home. Don’t go out. Don’t be around people.” But we’re the church. We’re a community of believers, right? How do we be in community if we can’t be together.
Sure, there are other options. Online sermons. Email. Texts and messages and whatnot. But it’s not the same. And who is this God we get together and talk about each week? Did He say things like “be strong and courageous?” Didn’t he hang out with lepers? Are we doing “super important things” when we get together? If so, how can we toss it aside so easily? Boop. No church this week. No prayer meeting. No Sunday School. Shut it all down because someone might get sick.
Now saying that, I don’t want to minimize those with weakened immunity. Or the aged, or any other at risk group. Those people need to be encouraged to stay home. I get it. But how about smaller groups? How about 10 people at a time get together, sing a hymn, pray, have a devotion, and do church-y stuff–maybe for a smaller number of minutes with a smaller number of people–but still get together in community?
So I’m conflicted. And I will leave this here, a public testimony to not knowing what the right thing to do is. I’ll do know this much–I’m not happy about not being with my church community.
I’ve decided to write my spiritual transformation paper on my experiences with fasting. I’m going to compare/contrast abstaining from food (something I do somewhat regularly) and abstaining from speaking (something I’ve never done). I’m working on a plan for an 8 hour speaking fast, and trying to work some stillness and solitude in at the same time.
While walking the most perfect dog in the world this morning (that dog being Deuteronomy James Reed Batty), I had some thoughts about how this slowing/no speaking fast is going to work. Concerns is a better word.
How am I going to walk this dog without speaking to him? “Come on” is a word frequently used when walking a Labrador. One thought I had about how to not say “Let’s get going, Deut” is to slow down, and let him sniff for as long as he wants, at all the places he wants. That will cause me to be slow, for sure! I wonder how much time I should plan on adding to my walk if I let him take as much time as he wants.
Silence and Solitude is an interesting idea to me, and not a spiritual discipline I’ve participated in before. This morning, I’ve tried to do things a little more quietly, and a little more slowly than normal. And yet, I have a day ahead of me that needs my attention. Here are some quick thoughts I need to come back to.
Perhaps a modified silence? There are modified fasts. I’m thinking a “only speak if spoken to” day of silence.
