This is a bittersweet Christmas. As I write this, the pandemic continues to ravage LA County worse than ever before, with ICUs out of beds in some hospitals. On the other hand, shipments of the vaccine have already arrived and some doses have already been administered to medical professionals. Meanwhile, we continue to hunker down in our homes.
For Christmas, that’s not so bad in some ways. We have our festive decorations, good music, and holiday food. We dearly miss our loved ones, of course; may we never take those large family Christmases for granted again. We gather on Zoom, but miss the high-touch experience of exchanging hugs, exchanging presents, and wrestling with our family members’ dogs and children on the floor. But even as we have to adjust our various Christmas traditions and celebrations to fit 2020, life will still go on in the new year.. We certainly hope and pray that 2021 will be better than this year, but it won’t be a fast transition. That’s probably for the best, as this whole pandemic experience has been traumatic for people on a number of levels, and the healing process will take time. If we were all instantly given access to everything we’ve been missing with no fear of catching the virus, it would still take time to adjust. Think of it: if you’ve been following the guidelines, you’ve been living in a fairly tight circle for some time. If you were instantly able to engage in every kind of social experience you’ve been missing, you could easily overwhelm yourself. Personally, I know that the first time I get to teach class at WCHAS in person again, I may cry. I will probably cry again when I am next able to share a meal with anyone from church. Processing all of that--whatever the landmarks are for you--will take time. As the world reopens piece by piece in 2021, pace yourself and celebrate the small wins. Consider it like letting your eyes adjust to sunlight after being in a cave--for some, that will feel very literal. You may find yourself expecting the world to go back to how it was before, but I can nearly guarantee that there will be permanent changes on the other side. You may find yourself experiencing a kind of reverse culture shock, and that’s OK. Culture shock tends to go in three phases: euphoria, depression, and acceptance. The euphoria, in this case, will likely go like this: “Yay! I can have parties and eat with people and sing in public again!” The depression phase may go like this: “Ugh, I have to sit in traffic again? Will my extroverted friends ever shut up? Wow, I’d forgotten how expensive having a face-to-face social life is!” Acceptance, which is the ultimate goal, goes something like this: “There’s good and bad about this, but I’ll take it as it comes. Meanwhile, life goes on.” The goal of this entire blog has never been acceptance of the spread of a deadly disease that has killed too many people--we must do everything we can to make it stop. It has, however, been about learning to accept reality and keep moving from a place of truth instead of denial. When we started back in March, I did not expect to be writing this long, but I always expected it to drag on at least a few months as others were denying it. It is with some bittersweet feelings that I conclude this blog with this post, given that the pandemic isn’t quite over yet. The premise of this has always been that life goes on, and my reasons for wrapping this up are to help it do so. As we enter the choppy half-vaccinated challenges of the new year, I wish to devote as much time as possible to the youth and children of my church as they process each new development. Since that age group doesn’t really read blogs, it’s a better investment of my time to meet them where they are more likely to be. As we move into 2021, my prayer for you is one of hope. Not the kind of fool’s hope that denies reality, but that accepts it while working to improve it. This is what Jesus did that first Christmas in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. He showed up in a broken reality, accepting it as it was so that He could eternally change it for the better. Because of Him, life goes on and will go on, no matter what happens.
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AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
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