Let's Rename Touchstone Zoomstone

Many who have likely never read T.S Eliot’s poems will quote him in a dreary April – and this one is dreary on many levels.

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
(opening lines of The Wasteland)

And it has been cruel while bringing life and energy and new discoveries to many of our dormant strengths -learning a whole new way of living and communicating. The memory of friendships and the desire to connect has so many of us on Zoom or its equivalents that I’m thinking we should change our name to Zoomstone.

Eliot was a spiritual friend to me in my youth and his line from Prufrock “ I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” comes to mind when I consider our situation. We measure our days differently. A friend joked our gas consumption is still in MPGs but it’s not miles per gallon – it’s months per gallon. I know I haven’t fully adopted the metric system.

I’m not big on pious bromides but if ever there is a time when being conscious of the God who is “with us” in Jesus, this is it.  God is walking in the darkness and confusion of our lives, never leaving us alone, not necessarily rescuing us from our predicament, but strengthening us to persevere. And God calls us to follow him as he walks ahead of us into what is our still unknown future.

In this post-resurrection season of the church we are called to follow Jesus as he goes ahead of us. I’ve been struck by the many ups and downs of the gospel stories around Jesus’ resurrection. So many doubts accompany joy and hope. It took time for it all to sink in even for his closest friends – it’s the same for us today. We live in hope while still being in the dark about much of what lies ahead.

The world changed for us all -no meetings, no travel, no in person conversations. The Zoom world had begun, and it has been remarkably rich and fruitful. Susan said the other day “You’ve been at more groups in the past couple of weeks than in the past year”.

Like many of you it has been busy. In about three weeks I had been in 13 group meetings ranging in size from 6 to 12 participants. Some have wanted me to provide a template for structuring the time and others are well and truly self-managed but seem happy to see me. 

The dozens of individual conversations each week have been many and diverse. Life goes on and people face the same challenges with some extra added anxiety thrown in. Some are facing layoffs, some are having to do layoffs, some are seeing their retirement nest egg deflate, some are fearful and frustrated by the confinement and uncertainty, some have serous health challenges or have lost loved ones.

This is where the fear and anxiety is particularly evident – the fear of being ill in hospital alone or dying alone because of the restrictions on visitors. How we express comfort to the bereaved or the struggling becomes a big question. Zoom helps but it is still remote.

As I mentioned in my Monday Thought on April 6th, “I Don’t Know” is the answer to far too many questions but friendship offered is like water in a thirsty land. So, we gratefully carry on, trying to social distance and trust God for our provision to do the work.

Thank you for your kindness and care.

With the resurrected Jesus’ joy

Norm

PS.

We are grateful for the ongoing support which enables us to continue producing new material, including podcasts, for our website. If you would like to make a donation please follow this link.