The Covid19 pandemic has altered our way of life in many ways but none more so than our gathering together. Many of us enjoy being in each other’s company. Walking and listening – entertaining and being entertained. These are the ways we give and receive – it gives us a sense of being partakers in the human race. From a busy bus shelter to a stadium of a hundred thousand we enter the human transaction exchange.
I know a young man, super talented, a wonder to watch as he performs his art. In the few short years I have known him, his perceived identity has been as a professional dancer with a career in the arts and a life on the stage. Today I think about the impact of the Covid19 restrictions on him and millions of others who worked hard and sacrificed to bring to us more than just entertainment. They bring us together and in ways we would never imagine.
Think of a football match. The factory worker sits next to the local doctor or the 90 year old cheers in unison with the 9 year old. It’s the same in the theatre and a music concert. We stand together soaking in the mystery, often of what we cannot do, but unitedly appreciate. We hear of a well-known artist performing at our local theatre and before we can open our search engine all tickets are sold out. If only the venue was bigger and had the capacity for more who want to watch and hear!
The challenge of not being able to gather in groups is now being recognised as one affecting not just our epidemiological status. It affects our sense of freedom or the feeling of being trapped and it is hurting us – in short pushing our mental health boundaries as it pushes our sense of who we are. Because we are designed for community, our sense of balance often comes from being together. We affirm and confirm each other even when we are facing forward looking at the same thing. Might it be because we are sharing the same experience? We see the same goal at the same time or the same amazing dance move stirring our emotions.
Today I reflect on the wisdom given to the gathered crowds who followed Jesus up a hillside. Just as in our theatres and stadiums, people from different cultures, wealth backgrounds and religious perspectives gathered together. The hopeful sick and the spiritually curious joined to look away from themselves towards a voice of wisdom.
On that hillside Jesus offered us a number of pointers to how we might best focus our attention. Today some of our friends and family will be worrying about the impact of a lost income, the closing of an industry we trained so long and hard for. We might be longing to join the crowd on the football terraces or in the circle at our local theatre where we felt anonymous and yet a part of wider humanity.
Amongst the many recorded lines in the sermon on the mount Jesus posed the question, ‘Can anyone of us by worrying add a single hour to our life?’ I know that it is not easy to just stop worrying yet Jesus suggests we worry mostly about the things which inevitably will change and we are more settled when we focus on everlasting things. The Message version of the Bible puts it this way:
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Why not send some encouragement to an artist today?
Rob Wykes 