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Well, what did ya learn? (Part 1)


My Dad had some quirky sayings that he was known for. One of them was “Well, what did ya learn?” He typically said that after I did something that was way south of smart. Like attempting, at age 10, to play in the family car . . . and taking it out of park . . . and the car rolling down the driveway into some healthy sized holly bushes. If it were not for the holly bushes the car would have rolled right into the side of our neighbor’s home. And did I mention that my little sister was in the backseat. You might imagine my parent’s reaction and part of it included my Dad asking, “Well, what did ya learn?”

I would like to think that I have learned a lot from the mistakes that I have made in life. Maybe. Sometimes. What I am wondering, at this particular moment, as I look back over the past year, is “Well, what did ya learn?”. The year 2020 will go down as one of, it not the, worst year ever. I suppose that is saying a lot considering that people lived through feudalism, the Black Plague, the Spanish flu, slavery, WWI and WWII, Disco music and Boy Bands of the 90s. Yet over the last year I have heard my Father’s question in my head more than once.

Longing for normal (or longing for the good old days)

I think one of the things I have witnessed as a local church minister, a father and human being is that the longing for normal is a powerful thing. Whatever normal might be for us we want it back quickly when life hands us disruption. Many of the conversations that I have had with my next-door neighbors and folks at church over the last year often turned into discussions about when can we get back to normal. Yet one of the things that I am learning from 2020 is that normal is not so great.

In 2020 we learned that Christians have no clue how to be the church outside of four walls. We were (still are) baffled when 2020 forced us to go home and be around our family and next-door neighbors. Don’t get me wrong. Gathering as fellow Christians is important. If only to remind us that we are not crazy. That others have heard this crazy story of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and have found a changed life too.

Yet when churches didn’t meet in person many Christians were not sure what to do. They accused church leaders of giving into or being scared of governmental forces. Instead of remembering that the church never was a building. Christian parents were given an opportunity to teach their children stories from the Bible in the comfort of their own home. Christians were forced back into their neighborhoods and given the opportunity to be a good neighbor (wear a mask, limit contact, wash your hands, actually check-in/get to know your actual neighbors).

Instead of being busy with the rush of getting out the door to work and school we freaked out over having more time on our hands. We got what we said we wanted. More time at home. Less activities. Opportunities to get to know our actual neighbors. Time available to tell our children Bible stories. And all of it outside of the church walls and much of it at minimal financial costs. We got what we said we wanted. We just wanted things to get back to normal more.

I’m not being a snob. This is not me on my high horse. I am not calling anyone out. I am, however, wondering what did ya learn? Did we learn anything? And if we did learn something then how does that connect with how we live? Will we simply desire to get back to normal? The normal of ignoring our actual neighbors. The normal that confuses normal with following Jesus. 

Currently the year 2021 seems to be headed into a new season. A season without masks and quarantining. A season without daily COVID case reports and deaths. So, I am taking a moment as you and I move into a new season and asking, what did ya learn? Otherwise, we will go back to normal.

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