COVID and the Modern Church-Goer

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Lately I have been battling with whether I should write this or not, but five months later it still sits just as heavy on my heart, so here I am.

I have heard a lot of modern church-goers talking about the rules and regulations that COVID has placed on our places of worship. It has become a topic that has become heavy on many hearts. There is a battle we are all facing. It is real, it is present, and it is so evident.

In the same motion, I hear a lot of people talking about choosing not to attend church or leaving ministries because of the guidelines that we are asked to follow (or attending / serving and complaining about the accommodations or lack there of). The focus that that church doesn't make people wear masks or their church is allowed to meet inside or our church doesn't / does ____. My heart is heavy. We are choosing to not meet or allow divides because church has left its American standards? Have we really boxed Christ in? I pray we haven't.

The reality is that if wearing a mask or sitting outside in the heat is keeping you from fellowship with the body you are no longer going for Him, church has become about you. It has become about comfort not sacrifice.

As revelation warns us, as the reality of other countries remind us, there is going to be a day when we can no longer worship our Savior in freedom. There will be a day when we will no longer be able to have fellowship. My heart grieves for the day when we, as Christians, look back on COVID and think I wish I would have gone when it was easier. Let me tell you, if you can't sit in a lawn chair for church because you're uncomfortable you will not be willing to sit in a hide-away risking your life for Jesus. If this discomfort is making the Gospel unappealing, then you don't grasp the infinite magnitude of the Gospel.

I am struck by the great lengths those in the Bible went through to get people to Jesus, things that people went through to worship Jesus, and things that people went through to make Him known. 

In Luke 5:17-26 a man who is paralyzed has friends who climbed to the roof to lower him to Jesus when they couldn't get through the crowd. Would you? 

In Acts 16:16-40 when Paul and Silas were imprisoned on their way to the place of prayer they still chose to worship God in the prison resulting in the jailer and his family coming to know God as their Savior. Would you? 

In Acts 14:19-28 after Paul is stoned, beaten, thrown out of the city and left for dead for proclaiming God as God he got up, went back to the city, and continued to preach the Gospel. Would you?

I'm not saying that I love the rules we have been given, I don't. I struggle. I have a forever internal war I'm battling to submit to governing authorities in the way Romans 13:1-7 asks us to while also asking where our freedom is. I have many angry moments because my heart hurts, my soul is weary. 

But here is the thing, my sweet reader, that's where Jesus wants to meet us. He wants to meet us in the questions, uncertainty, and frustrations. Jesus is in the business of weary souls and tired hearts (Matthew 11:28-30). Allow Him to meet with you. With or without masks. In AC or in 90 degree heat. In distant 'hello' and 'goodbye'. Let Him meet with you.

Let's use this time to fix our focus.