The Path We Choose

Day 21 of Social Distancing.

It's a simple chart. I saw it on Facebook today, and shared it.

This chart:

I've been watching people at both ends of the spectrum.

There have been a few people who are focusing on things that annoy them. Their anger and bitterness has come out. Many of their posts are complaints. I don't want to focus on them.

Most of the people I know are in the Growth Zone. That's the zone I'm in. I want to focus on the positive. Sure, like many people, the news gets to be too much and I want to cry. Everyone needs a good cry. It relieves pressure. Most of the time I'm using this time to do something constructive. I cleaned every cabinet, drawer and closet that I can get to. Cleaning. Lots of cleaning. I'm teaching myself, with the help of YouTube, how to play finger-style guitar. I'm working on a complex counted cross stitch. I found a website to learn how to code. Not anything extensive like my web developer son, but to build on what he taught me of HTML and CSS. Maybe I'll get back to my book. It was getting too painful to write about my life, but maybe my story will help someone. I've even taken advantage of the early Spring to start working on my flower beds. Helping at church has turned into an hour or so a few days a week, instead of the 20+ hours a week that I had spent volunteering there. At least I'm still able to help. Relaxation. That has been something I've felt guilty about. I'm using this time to relax.

What path are you choosing?

Our New Normal

Day 20 of Social Distancing.

Today marks three church weeks of our new normal. 

We aren't gathering together at church. Our production team alone exceeds the 10 person limit. On hold are the days where we have a dozen people working in the background while the band and our pastors are on stage. On hold is the chattering over comms where we make silly comments between giving cues to one another. 

Our new normal is broken down into three days of recordings. We record the band. The modified band, we can't have a full band for now. It exceeds the limit. No more individual bands at each campus. Now we have our four worship leaders and a couple volunteers. We have a production crew of some staff and "key" volunteers, like me. I put up the lyrics. I used to put them up on the band's prompter, the sidescreens, the center screen and the online screen, along with any tags, videos or graphics needed. Now I put lyrics up for the online screen alone. The next day our campus pastor records announcements. Finally we record our lead pastor doing the message. Our Multisite Director on camera, my oldest on wireless camera, our Production Coordinator as Tech Director, and me. I put up the sermon notes and graphics, videos if needed. And record everything to SD cards.

Today this momento of days gone by bothered me. It's our campus pastor's headset. It's been sitting there since the last time we had service in the building. The Saturday that they banned more than 500 people. We had to go online for Sunday because it would have bumped us over the limit. We recorded the Saturday service for online. Our pastor left this here after he was finished. Today it made me sad. 

At this point I'm finding it difficult not to be sad. Not scared. Last week's message talked about fear. I'm not scared. I trust God. He's helped me through so much. I trust Him. I'm just heartbroken. This silent enemy that we're surrounded by is destroying so many lives. So many innocent people are suffering. I have family who are deemed essential. I worry about them. I worry about everyone i care about, everyone who ever has been in my life, everyone that they love. I pray for them. Pray without ceasing.

The saving Grace. What keeps me from sinking into despair is something our Audio Engineer had said. He said he's seeing a change in people. We stopped fighting and started helping. All over this beautiful world that we live in. People care again.