Embrace the New - Pastor Jen

How many of us have tried something new over the past 3-4 weeks? I know I have! My first zoom meeting was with Pastor Linda, Stacey, Howard, and Dave. I did not have high hopes for this conversation, with four other people, on my iPad. To my surprise it went very well! I felt connected to a group of people I usually see once a week, if not more. The next day Carole Boutwell and I talked via Zoom. It was like we were sitting at a table in Fellowship Hall catching up. This past weekend my book group met via a Google Meet or Hangout; I’m still not sure what it was, but it worked. We shared our range of feelings about Before We Were Yours.  
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 I’ve realized that I am not as techie as I would like to be, or thought I was, but I am open to learning. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been rewarding. New ways of connecting, working, and communicating have helped keep these same four walls of my house looking brighter. So, I have opened myself up to allowing technology to occupy some more time in my days.  

Before social distancing became the norm, I decided to scale back on my time spent on social media. Well, I have had a change of thought. Wanting to keep in touch with family and friends has caused me to wade back into the waters of social media. 

Thankfully I was greeted on Instagram with a story that my niece, Lily, posted that brought a big smile to my face. She posted a picture of a wall-hanging in her room that has this verse from Matthew 11, “Come to me who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest… for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” She posted this because her friend tagged her in the task to ‘See a Scripture Send a Scripture’. So, Lily posted this and tagged five of her friends. Though not tagged I sent Lily one of my favorite passages for when times are tough, “Hear my cry O God and attend to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I will cry out to you, lead me to the rock that is higher than I…” - Psalm 61:1-2. Her response to me was, “Wow I love that!! I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one before.” After she wrote that, I was going to hit her up with a few of my other favorites; however, I figured I’d just let her sit with that verse for a while.  
 
So, I’d like to invite you to try some new technology. It could be anything... attend an online peer-support meeting, call a friend and see if they want to meet up for coffee through a zoom meeting, sign-up for Facebook so you can watch the church service with others and enjoy the chat, and/or sign-up for Instagram and share some pictures and encouraging words. Learn some new tricks with videos, pictures, filters, and lots of other things I’ve been told are out there. I look forward to connecting with more folks in new ways.  
 
Here’s the other thing I learned how to do today, it isn't perfect but it was fun...

Well, I tried for over an hour to upload a 10 second video... there is still much to learn. :-)
Stay tuned, I'm determined to figure out how to post it. 

 

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