So, about this COVID 19 pandemic. Are we out of the woods? Deeper into the woods? Or are we just at the edge of the forest where light ahead is visible? Perhaps the answer is a bit of tossed salad: all three.
I was thinking about this…again!…this morning as we were out for our morning walk, dog in tow. When times were very clear that we were deep within the pandemic, unwritten rules were also clear and followed. If someone was approaching you on the same sidewalk from the opposite direction, one of you had to go. That is, one had to cross the street and keep walking on the other side.
Now the rules are a bit more convoluted. Someone approaches and a sort of dance ensues. While one dodges a bit to the left, the other moves a bit to the right. To cross the street or not cross the street? That is the question. Or just walk briskly by the oncoming pedestrian, nod, smile (but don’t open your mouth to smile), and move on? Oh, such conundrums!
Such seems to be the very condition of life, does it not? To yield or to keep one’s position? To allow for another’s needs or assert our own rights? To be concerned or to not worry? To shift left or shift right or just keep plodding down the middle?
The argument could be made that this also is the condition of faith. Life and faith are full of judgements some deeply moral, and others simply pragmatic. While we are not called to judge another’s status before God or even the person they have become, the quality of life is determined by the judgements we make, including those judgements we make about other people. Frequently in determining a course of action or inaction we dance around a bit until we figure out what course we might take.
Sometimes the point is less what we decide then that we do decide. Decision made, we move forward and live with whatever consequences great or small. Standing on the sidelines refusing to commit or decide is in itself a decision, often with even greater consequences for someone if not us.
As Christians both armed with and covered by grace, sitting safely on the sidelines is quite often not the place for followers of Jesus. Jesus calls us out to the dance of life and faith. Move a little left, move a bit right, but keep moving. Love the neighbor as oneself. Cross the street or just move around oncoming foot traffic. Care about your health and that of others, and a bit less about your right to the walkway.
In the woods or out of the woods? In one way it doesn’t matter. Following Jesus is to be done in both places. The dance of life and faith must go on. After all, it is not about the woods, it is about the followers and, most of all, the one being followed.