Good morning…
“I loved your post about Zoom fatigue,” she wrote. “All so true, describing in detail the pitfalls of the Zoom experience in ways I hadn’t considered before. And yet… there are many blessings in Zoom too.”
She went on to list a few of her own personal experiences:
- “I was speaking with my husband yesterday and his sponsor in his recovery program has not been able to come to a meeting in many months because his Parkinson’s disease is so bad. Now thanks to Zoom, he is getting much needed fellowship.
- Yesterday, I attended a Bible study that I regularly used to go to that I simply cannot get to from my new house. Most of the women in this Bible study are over 70 and some cannot leave sick husbands or are sick themselves and too weak to come. They can now participate.
- I hope that once we get back to normal, we will be able to Zoom in the people who are physically unable to attend.
- We were able to before, but it just wasn’t something people did. Like we did with my mother who was alone this Easter for the first time and she attended our Easter lunch on my computer at the end of the table.
- I think the true blessing of Zoom is we will now be able to include the many people who were isolated and alone because of physical illness or disability and allow them to fully participate in this new way.
- I think for your classes it was exactly the right thing not to Zoom… so much of what you teach is not about content but about being with God and each other. But Zoom can be a blessing too.”
Zoom itself is not good or bad, connecting or isolating, a blessing or a curse. Just like every person and everything in life, what matters is how we weave with God our everyday lives. Zoom can be good, connecting, a blessing AND Zoom can be bad, isolating, a curse. Like all multifaceted gifts given by God, if we use them in tandem with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God’s presence can spread among us quicker than any virus. Leave God out of the equation and any good looking opportunity can feel depleting, disconnecting, and discombobulating.
Once the reopening of our real lives occurs, my deep hope is that we do not mindlessly rush to return to our old normal. Instead I hope we take time to incorporate some of the valuable resources we have tapped during this sacred season of sequestering. Some of the old AND some of the new, some of what we used to label “good” AND some of what we used to label “bad,” some of our familiar face-to-face connections AND some of the creative avenues open to those who are alone and isolated. There is good, there is better, and there is best. From our old picture of “good,” I think we are collectively moving toward “better” as we all seek to embody God’s “very best.”
Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can’t. The heart regulates the hands. This isn’t so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you’re shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even. As it is written, nothing left over to the one with the most, nothing lacking to the one with the least (2 Corinthians 8:11-15, MSG).
…Sue…
