UMC20201220 How can I worship God during COVID19
UMC20201220 - How can I worship God during COVID19¶
How can I worship God during COVID-19?
I have been terribly disappointed with the news of a second-wave of COVID-19 ressurging in South Africa. I was just starting to enjoy safe contact with close friends and now we have to enter into cautious mode again. It’s not all hopeless though, our president and his team have approached restrictions in a progressively more responsible and rounded way as the virus continues. But that low-level hum of anxiety and uncertainty remains in my chest.
It is important during this time for us to bring to light the implicit and often unconscious impact that COVID-19 has on our spirits. It is important to ask: Am I denying that there is any impact on me? Am I just waiting for everything to return to normal (and not living now)? How has this impacted me spiritually? On this kind of reflection, I have felt one area which feels particularly dry is worship.
There are many working definitions for worship and I think now is an important time for us to expand our definitions of worship. Worship is not just singing at Church (although music is one of the easiest ways to sink into worship). Worship is how we connect with God, it is how we admire God, it is a state of heart, a sinking in, a standing in awe, a deep love and deep submission, a filling of grace, something like that. If we are not worshipping, we can feel dry.
So what can you do to enter into a state of worship? Could you have a coffee with God in His creation? Could you write to God? Could you worship through a prayer? Could you meditate on a specific worship song? Could you cook for God? Could you run or exercise for God? What allows you to enter in that sinking, submission state of the heart?
God longs to meet with us, to restore us and to love us and waiting for Church to return to normal will tire you out. May you find His peace and love in these difficult times.
Cliff
(A prayer that I have found particularly helpful is the Serenity Prayer which can be found at : https://tinyurl.com/serenity-prayer-umc)