Dear Grace Community—
As we enter into the second week of Lent, I know that many of you have chosen Lenten disciplines—giving up alcohol or chocolate, or taking on a particular discipline of prayer. If you haven’t got a discipline already, I want to suggest one to you: turning your screen on.
I have school-aged children who desperately miss their teachers and their classmates. And yet they do something that is common among their peers: they leave their cameras off during virtual school. Sometimes, the reason makes sense. No one wants an up-close view of a sandwich getting chewed. But, a lot of the time, I think it is a surrender to isolation.
And it’s not just kids. We all do it in this time.
We think of Lent as the time when Jesus was alone in the desert—but it also recalls the Israelites’ shared journey in the desert. And so I encourage you, as a discipline, to turn your screen on—both literally and metaphorically. Show your face in coffee hour. And reach out to someone whom you miss. Laughter, conversation, and joy can all be disciplines that bring us closer to God.
And one specific idea: I really want to get to know you all, and I simply don’t have enough chances. So join me next Friday for Trivia Night, which has no agenda other than connection. It’s appropriate for 8 year-olds, 80 year-olds, and everyone in between. You can play as a household or play on your own. But I hope we’ll get to see each other, have a lot of fun, and remember that God is with us because we are with each other.
In Christ,
Anne+