Disengaged

Speaker 1 00:00:06 I know, I know. I know by now you're probably thinking to yourself, this guy can only do two podcasts a week. Come on, man. This guy only works on Sundays. Well, no more waiting. The time has finally arrived. The topic is hot. The audience is sitting on the edge of your seat. So let's get going. Thank you. It's great to be with you again today. Welcome to thinking it through. This is a podcast put out by village church, East on a variety of topics that draw our attention in our ever-changing call time, your host Craig Jarvis. And I want to tell you something that happened to me just last night. I was with some friends at Panera bread and we were ordering food. And I was talking to this very nice Speaker 2 00:00:43 Lady taking my order across the counter. And I Speaker 1 00:00:46 Noticed behind me, a lady standing just a little off to the side of me. I thought she was waiting to say something to me because she was standing a little bit close. Maybe she knew me. So I glanced behind me to see Speaker 2 00:00:56 If I knew her. She immediately became very overly apologetic. She said, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. And then took three steps back away from me while I realized that she had been offended by me looking over my shoulder at her and probably thought she was standing a little too close to me because of the COVID era that we're in. I quickly responded to her that I wasn't giving her the evil eye for standing too close. I just thought she was somebody that I might know trying to get my attention. Well, that experience made me very sad. I realized our world has changed entirely almost to its core, to even look at the person standing behind you in line, causes them to think that they've offended you somehow by standing too close or invading your six foot space. I started contemplating the impact COVID has had on us over this past year and a half. Speaker 2 00:01:46 What has it done to us emotionally, physically, spiritually? How has it changed our society? Even though the vaccine has arrived in, been distributed to over a third of the U S population, we continue to deal with the social implications of a year of disengagement. I no longer go in for a handshake. I avoid being hugged. I wonder if I'm offending, just offering to do a fist bump. We've isolated ourselves for so long. It almost seems it seems wrong to rejoin the land of the living and the conflicting messages being sent out to us from people who are supposed to be in the know about this COVID situation. Doesn't help at all. After a year and a half, we still don't know where this thing that infected the globe even started at this time in history. Our world has become more comfortable with disengagement than with engaging one another. Speaker 2 00:02:30 And I'm not sure if there's an end in sight. Lifeway research did a survey of a thousand churchgoers at the end of 2020. When they asked them about getting back to church, 95% said they greatly value attending church together in person I'm majority 52% said their faith had actually grown over the pandemic. But church has continued to struggle with church attendance. The average church attendance in America is down by a third from before. COVID many say they would attend church regularly online or semi-regularly online. And they seem quite satisfied with that. With all of this, the church has become somewhat disengaged. This may shock you, but only 34% of churchgoers say that someone from their church even checked in on them during 2020 with most churches online. Now we may have just become unintentionally feeding the beast of disengagement. Our church has been reopened for three months. Speaker 2 00:03:26 Now we socially distance where mass we cleaned, like there's no tomorrow. And the comments that I regularly hear from folks venturing back are quote, I have missed this unquote. We've done zoom meetings with our staff for a year, and now we've begun to meet outside in person. Now that the weather's getting nicer. And one of our leadership team commented to me just recently. I just seem to be more engaged. When we meet in person, we've seen disengagement on the rise in every area of a life, we'd be on the effects of our children. Being educated online teachers know their students find other things to do. When they have the screens. On five years ago, it would have been unthinkable for a school board to suggest all their third grade teachers begin teaching completely online. Every right thinking person would know. That's a very difficult thing to do. Speaker 2 00:04:14 It's hard to engage third graders on zoom, teachers, businesses, churches, just about every organization we get involved with have struggled over this past pandemic to make zoom meetings engaging. While technology is an amazing tool we've learned to use in this bed pandemic. We're not meant to live in isolation, staring into a screen depending on an internet connection for our social interaction. Listen, there's a reason the Bible says to greet one another with a Holy kiss, can you believe it says that, uh, I'm not a big one for that one, but it does say that nonetheless. And it says it because every person knows the value of personal interaction and the loss we've experienced learning to depend so much on technology, even though we're still collecting data on the effects of this isolation over the pandemic, it has yet to reveal long-term effects. The chair of the national department of psychology and behavioral neurosciences said, quote, the national surveys are beginning to show what we expected, which is that there are increased prevailing rates of stress and depression. Speaker 2 00:05:17 He said, we're also seeing reduced initiation of treatment for patients with substance use disorders and a reversal of 2000 nineteens reduction in overall deaths. We are witnessing, he said time, examples of how social disparities turn into health disparities. Suicide rates have skyrocketed. Substance abuses up. Depression is on the rise. As a matter of fact, a survey taken in the United Kingdom said the fear contract of contracting COVID-19 seems not to be as high as concerns about the psychological and social impact of the pandemic. Can you believe that results of that survey concluded this to continue to isolate from the positive influences of life will only prolong the underlying, but per pervasive conditions. We simply you cannot see and have yet to still comprehend. There's a reason and why the worst disciplinary measures for prisoners is to put them in isolation. It's widely known. Humans cannot Excel and thrive when they live in isolation. Speaker 2 00:06:16 It is at those times we are not excelling. We are at instead our most vulnerable. There's a story in the old Testament of a man who crumbled under the pain of isolation, you might be surprised to know is one of the amazing prophets of the old Testament. His name was Elijah. He had been used by God to do amazing things. He had seen God answer his prayers for miracles left and right. He had prophesied of famine. He'd been used of God to rid the land of idol worship he'd even raise the young child from the dead, the King and queen. At that time, their names were Ahab and Jezebel. Now those names might ring a bell for you because a Hab was listed in scripture several times as one of the worst Kings ever first caring King 1633 says Ahab did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the Kings before for him in verse 21, 25, it says there was nothing. Speaker 2 00:07:06 And who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, like a Hab whom Jezza bell, his wife, incited, God told Elijah to call it the wickedness of these two evil Kings and Queens. And to make a long story short. He did. Do you know what the result of that was? Jessica Bell said she wouldn't sleep until Elijah was dead. So in first Kings 19 Dean Elijah ran for his life into the wilderness alone to hide. He went a day's journey into nowhere alone and in fear. And it was there that this amazing man of God ask God to kill him. In first Kings 19 four, it says, he asked that he might die saying it is enough. Oh Lord, please take away my life. Why would this man of God do this? Well it's because it was forced to run from every person because he didn't know who was going to try and get it next. Speaker 2 00:07:59 He was forced to disengage from society and then he was vulnerable to what came next, fear, worry, anxiety, and overall hopelessness. You can find the story in first Kings 19, but in verse 10, it simply says, Elijah says to God, I've been very jealous for the Lord. The God of hosts for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars and killed your profits with the sword. And I only, I am left and now they seek my life to take it away. Isolation can play scary games with our minds. It was there that Elijah was visited by God. Elijah was hoping God would speak to him and show him something to encourage Tim. So God brought a storm, but God wasn't in the storm. And then God brought an earthquake and Elijah couldn't hear him in the earthquake, but it wasn't until all the chaos stopped. Speaker 2 00:08:52 And a gentle wind came that God finally to Elijah. And what did God tell Elijah? It might shock you to know that God told Elijah there were still 7,000 people who served God. In other words, God simply told a lie. Yeah, you are not alone. Isolation can do strange things to our perception of reality. It can make us doubt God. It can make us fearful. It can make us believe chaos rules the day like the earthquake and the, and the whirlwind. And we will simply never get out of our situation. It can make us believe we're alone. God said solution for Elijah was simply to remind him he had a plan. He was not alone. There's nothing Alijah needed more than the reminder from God that he was still in control. And the revelation that there were still 7,000 people who were there for Elijah. Speaker 2 00:09:42 Elijah didn't have the ability to zoom and realize he was not alone. He couldn't look at a computer screen and see all the faces on a screen, but he, but his push to disengage led him to believe lies that he was all by himself. And the further he went into the wilderness, yes, the more he believed those lies, do you feel disengaged? Disconnected? Don't buy it. You're not alone. Will tell us that we have yet to realize the power and those kinds of feelings that we experienced during this time. The pandemic, our way out is the same as Elijah. We need to push ourselves back into the places where we can be reminded. We are not in this alone. It's one thing to say, we're in this together. It's another thing to see others with us. There is power in human contact. Hebrews 10 24 says, let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. Speaker 2 00:10:36 Not neglecting meeting together as the habit of some is, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near, I know there are still out. Some unable to gather due to the vulnerability, to the virus. Everyone is free to make this decisions for themselves. As for our church, we want to keep streaming our services, to provide an Avenue for those folks to continue to worship with us. We're going to do everything in our power to make that happen. But for many believers, it may be time to gather again, stay socially distant, wear a mask. If you would like to fist bump, instead of doing the Holy kiss, whatever you need to do. But if you're up for shopping for groceries these days, you should likely get back the church. It's time to gather again together, again, worship the Lord together again and be reminded by seeing each we are not alone. Speaker 2 00:11:26 If your church observes social distancing, then there's a reason they do. And they wanted to get believers back together, again, to worship. And they know this is an essential part of our spiritual animals, emotional health. So we can see not just here, the words we are in this together. Okay. I hope you've stayed engaged with others around you. And if you have great during this time, good for you. Keep reaching out, keep loving those who can not out still, because there are still some that simply cannot due to health conditions. Would you do your part to remind them they're not alone. You could very well be to them. The still small voice of God, right when they need it the most. And if you do care to venture out and try church again, our church still does and we still do what we can to protect our folks. The best way we can during this terrible time of pandemic. If you just want to check us out online, you can always do so at village church East, we would love to get to know you let us know that you drop by. Our goal is to do everything in our power to let you know Speaker 1 00:12:30 You are not alone. Don't disengage Speaker 2 00:12:34 Like captain Picard reminds us from the bridge of the enterprise. Speaker 1 00:12:38 Engage all of you star Trekkies. You'll appreciate that little there. Listen. We're all in this together. Venture out to church and see that we are, and God is still in control. I hope you'll join me next time. As we spend a few more moments together, thinking these things through until then, remember you are not alone. See you next time.