Good morning…
“On one level, shut-ins allow ordinary people to approximate the experience of ‘cloistering,'” our blog post said the morning I unexpectedly woke with achy symptoms (see our post A Cold Or COVID?). “But on another level, shut-ins focus the attention of the community on tarrying. Although prayers can be as diverse as those who utter them, tarrying implies a waiting expectantly.”
Over the years, I have enjoyed being bedside with shut-ins. I have regularly called, texted, or emailed shut-ins. I have taken food or gifts to shut-ins. I have diligently prayed for shut-ins. But I have never before considered myself a “shut-in.” It is a humbling thing to receive food, prayers, and loving messages from those who are tarrying with me from a distance as I cloister in our basement, waiting expectantly for test results.
Tarrying was an unfamiliar word to me, until God brought the concept vibrantly alive in two blog posts and two music videos this week, Come Rest and Let’s Tarry Together. It’s as if God first taught us the meaning intellectually before deepened me down into the verb, hemming me into a private tutorial, teaching me experientially the soulful art of tarrying.
Lessons learned by experience we often keep forever.
Along with emails, prayers, and good wishes from many of you, I have felt the support of family. The love I poured into our two COVID-positive young adults, during their two separate two-week quarantines in our basement, has returned to me in beautiful ways. Here was the breakfast awaiting me on the top step of our basement stairs the first morning I officially became “shut-in.”
My friend with the rose garden (see our post In Her Rose Garden) told me I could cut and take home some flowers in the cool of the early morning. How could I have known that later in the week, these beautiful blooms would keep me company as I pass time alone with God?
Fortunately, I can enjoy our private back yard without spreading germs. Sunshine and fresh air, a candle and a long stemmed rose, cloistering and connecting from afar, these simple gifts filled my 4th of July. The night before I had slept fourteen hours (with a chunk of time awake to write our post). Sleeping fourteen hours is unheard of for me, so I know my body is fighting through some type of virus.
I am receiving an advanced lesson in tarrying with the Lord, enjoying both a cloistering experience and keeping connections from afar. Tarrying together, we are granted the ability to abide with one another in the spiritual landscape that God’s grace allows. During each “shut-in” season, we are both held alone and kept close in prayer. The invisible time-space boundaries mysteriously erode away as we tarry with our Lord.
In the days ahead, my sense is that many of us will wake one morning with achy symptoms, wondering “Is this a cold or is this COVID?” On that day, please remember two words: “Cloister and connect.” And enjoy the art of tarrying, walking and talking with the One who whispers, “You are My very own.”
Now, this is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid, because I have reclaimed you. I have called you by name; you are mine (Isaiah 43:1b. GW).
..Sue…
P.S. Please join us at Northside Church for online worship today.
8:30AM · Traditional Worship
9:45AM · Contemporary Worship
11:00AM · Traditional Worship
Join us via Facebook or our website. In-person worship is set to resume August 2 in conjunction with our online offerings.
