“Come Thou Fount” is a hymn that asks God to “tune our hearts to sing thy praise.” What if he used our calendars to do it?
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Announcement
In an effort to discuss churchwide strategies for community building and spiritual growth during this strange time, we are going to gather online for a zoom video conference at 5 pm on Sunday. To join the meeting, click here from your computer or phone (you will need to download an application, but it is so simple). We would love to get 100% participation, so please digitally attend. We only have 40 minutes of free meeting time, so begin the login process at 445 on Sunday. I'll send out another invitation email on Sunday if you misplace this one. Thanks, and looking forward to speaking with you!
Devotional
When did it home for you that this was real? What was the moment that you recognized, regardless of your opinions on the virus or our social response to it, that this would be a major disruption to your life? When did it first make you angry?
For me, it was when I went to espn.com as a part of my daily morning ritual, and I read these fateful words: "March Madness is Cancelled."
What? March Madness? What am I going to do in March? And thats when it hit me- we do not cancel sports in America. The rhythms of sport are the rhythms of our life, from football on Saturdays (you're welcome UGA fans) and Sundays in the fall, to baseball in the spring, to basketball on a weeknights (the music elicits a visceral response), to all the practices and games that we play ourselves or put our children through. The sporting calendar is life. And thats when I realized how disruptive this virus would be- when we cancelled life. And thats also when I wondered, "What sort of people has our calendar made us into?"
Psalm 90:12 asks that God would "teach us to number our days rightly, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." The people of God have always celebrated certain times of the year to "number their days" in such a way that they remembered God, and his love for them. From the Passover feast in the Old Testament, to the Easter feast in the New Testament age, our calendar has helped us remember who we are.
Now that we have been stripped of our American calendars and schedules in so many ways, what if now is a great time to reclaim a Christian rhythm of living in our day-to-day. We will each have tons of time over the next couple weeks; that time will be shaping and changing you. What would it look like to impose a structure on your time so that, when this is all over, we would have actually grown spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally into the image of God we were made to be? Here is an article from the Gospel Coalition that would help you create a rule of life just like this. It may be a more productive (but less hilarious) usage of your time than this. Don't worry if it isnt perfect. Lets start taking small steps towards Christian maturity as has been modeled by saints down the ages.
A quote:
"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week." Gen. George Patton.
For discussion:
1. Describe your spiritual, emotional, relational, mental, and physical condition before social distancing. What role do you think your daily schedule played in creating this sort of person?
2. What are three practices you could commit to that, if kept diligently, would help you love God, love neighbor, and love yourself better during this time?
3. Have a conversation with your roommates or family. How can you come to this decision together, instead of by fiat?
A prayer for discipline to love God, from Psalm 90:12-17:
[12] So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
[13] Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
[14] Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
[15] Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
[16] Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
[17] Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands! (ESV)
