It May Be Time to Check In

I've been enjoying the pictures of the sanctuary Joseph is putting on Facebook.  They're beautiful photos of natural morning light when he walks in before he turns the lights on.  (https://www.facebook.com/Joseph.D.McBrayer/posts/10109043496337711)  It really is lovely.  I'm not nearly as good at photography as Joseph is, but the other day I tried to take my own picture in the afternoon.

It took me a while to get even this not very good picture of the sanctuary.  Here's why:

It's because we actually have a lot of stuff in there right now to film parts of our services.  I've got stuff from filming musicians.  Joseph has stuff from filming the speaking parts.  There are some microphones and other equipment hanging out following our upgrades to the AV system.

I'd say this is unique to the pandemic, but I don't think it is.  I can't speak to how Oak Grove was prior to the pandemic, but I know where I came from we did a good job of hiding messes from public view in closets, offices, and even behind the rail in the sanctuary.

Much has already been written about how this phenomenon has manifested in social media.  What you see someone post on Facebook isn't necessarily so much an indication of their perfect life as it is (maybe) an indication of a perfect moment.  Even then...you don't know what's lurking just out of the frame.

Most of the time I see this framed as a reason not to feel too bad about yourself--not to compare yourself to the version of your friends you see online because it's not possible to keep up with this distorted view of their reality.  There's wisdom in that!  A lot of us could probably stand to cut ourselves a little more slack.  But in this very strange time, I'm even more worried about isolation and disconnection.

I had a friend who was not well at all.  A mutual friend asked me if I knew how she was doing, and my answer was, "Well, I saw her posting in her normal way on Facebook, so she must be doing ok."  She was not doing ok...losing her battle with cancer only a week or two later.  I assumed, based on what I was seeing online, that she was fine.  I assumed wrong.

So it's now more important than ever to reach out.  Pick up the phone (did you know you can actually use it to talk to people?)!  Be the hands and feet of Jesus, because so often we are the vehicles by which he makes good on his promise to be with us always.  You can send a text or an email, but remember digital media invites people to hide their messes away and present only the best view of themselves...you might not get the whole picture.