We’re back into a time of transition. For a while we had a new normal. While lock-down was in force we sort of knew what life looked like. As it is eased, we find ourselves back in times of uncertainty. What will the Government announce next? How will people react? when will lit be safe? Are we going too fast? Will there be a second peak? What will the new ‘new normal’ be like…
It’s hard to predict, but we do retain some ability to shape it. I wonder if we can remember just a few weeks ago. Lock-down wasn’t easy, but for a lot of people in MIE there was a sense that we were re-learning something of value. We were appreciative of a slower pace of life that gave us more time for rest and reflection. We were glad that our new routines gave us greater opportunity for spiritual disciplines. Our loss of much that we had taken for granted galvanised within us a determination than when it was all over we wouldn’t make the same mistakes again.
Well, it isn’t all over. Not yet anyway. And we might find ourselves going back into lock-down more fully before we are finally able to put this all behind us. But even now, as the restrictions are beginning to ease, can we remember the resolutions we made in those early days? The commitments we made? Many of them were good and right, and it would be a shame to lose them in the race to get ‘back to 'normal’…
Sonya Renee Taylor, an author, poet and social justice activist offers us these profound and prophetic words:
"We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature."
It’s a fair point. There was a lot about our lives (at individual and societal level) pre-lock-down that wasn’t healthy. We might benefit from some careful thought as we are given new options and everything slowly stumbles ‘back to normal’.
This is as true for us as a Church as it is for us as individuals. We have a rare opportunity to stop and reflect on how we ‘do’ Church together. Whilst not wanting to pre-judge the issue, it would be a shame if MIE simply went ‘back to normal’. How often have we wished we had the space and time to think through what we are doing with fresh eyes..? How often have we found ourselves feeling trapped in structures of Church life that were great when they were developed years, or perhaps decades ago, but which have increasingly felt restrictive and limiting? How often have we wished we could ring the changes in an area of our mission, but have never felt the time was right?
Just as we need to pause, remember, think, and prayerfully consider what life might be like going forward at an individual level, so we have the opportunity to do so at an MIE-wide level. It might mean that things take a bit longer than we’d like to regain some of our old momentum, but it should be worth it in the long run.
…the upright give thought to their ways (Prov.21:29)
