COVID has taught me a lot of things. One of the things I’ve learned is how much we breathe in one another’s spit. I think I had a vague awareness of this before, but I’ve never seen it illustrated or heard it talked about so much. It was on every news source and social media outlet. I’m sure you saw at least one graphic similar to the one below.
I lived my life fully inhaling what you were exhaling. No offense, but that’s gross. Yet while I find it disgusting, for the most part, it previously wasn’t that dangerous. We are made to be able to breathe the breath of others. It was only when a particularly sticky virus came along that the risk of doing so became hazardous. So, we quarantined, distanced, and masked up to reduce the chances of that sticking. That was exactly the right thing to do, and it’s estimated that these efforts saved millions of lives.
Yet in our efforts to keep the stickiness at bay, we lost some of our… well, stickiness. We weren’t as sticky to our in-person social get-togethers, family gatherings, or community events. Some of us found alternative ways to stick through the gift of technology. Every Friday night over the past year I have sat across a screen with two of my dear friends for conversation, online games, and laughter. Honestly, we’re stickier than we have ever been. And I think about my coworkers and how much we have connected during this time. One of my closest coworkers started working at the church last September. Do you know how many times I’ve met her in person? Once. Yet she and I have connected, collaborated, laughed, and even prayed together. We’re sticky. And I’m grateful that Church of the Resurrection has offered incredible opportunities to worship, to experience God, and to grow online. My faith is still sticky.
I love where I’ve found stickiness this past year, and I hope not to lose that. We’ve learned that there are multiple ways to deeply bond, some of those being online. But there are places where my ability to stick has atrophied, particularly when it comes to gathering physically. I don’t anticipate that I will ever fully replace meaningful online stickiness with in-person stickiness. There is tremendous value in both. I believe that as we safely come through the pandemic, our world is moving in a direction where we’ll wholly embrace connecting both digitally and physically. My hope is that as my family becomes fully vaccinated, we’ll expand our in-person stickiness again. I give thanks to the researchers, medical professionals, community health workers, and everyone tirelessly working to get us to safe community stickiness. As I mentioned earlier, in most situations, we’re made to be able to breathe in one another’s breath, and while it may seem a little disgusting if you think about it too long, there is also beauty in that connectedness. After all, God made us to be sticky.
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April 29, 2021 at 06:48PM
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The body of Christ thrives on mutual caring - Leawood - Church of the Resurrection
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