Serve by Design

Every day we are hearing various suggestions related to how we may cope with the necessary restrictions that have been put in place due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. These are confining days of unprecedented and mandated social isolation. It has been hard on all of us, yet predictably we are helping each other to find ways to make this temporary "new normal" manageable and even instructional. The Keppler's have been maintaining our schedule. Those of you who know me well know that I love my routine! I can hear Monique shouting out, "Amen to that!" We have been getting up fairly early to get our day going and then getting to bed just after the conclusion of the early version of the late night news. The day for me starts while viewing the broadcast news with a forty-minute workout regimen downstairs involving the recumbent bicycle (1 mile at 13 mph), 31 minutes of walking (mostly 3 mph) on the treadmill with light weights ("wimpy" 5 pounders) and concludin...

As you know and have repeatedly heard about Covid 19 or Coronavirus, "This is serious!" We have been staying home nearly all of the time except for an occasional run to the post office to retrieve the mail, or to the drugstore drive-up to pick up meds or a quick in and out at the neighborhood grocery store to restock the pantry. Instead of our usual Sunday worship schedule, we watched and participated in worship this past Lord's Day via a live stream through FaceBook since all public gatherings larger than fifty individuals have been discontinued. The Coronavirus emerging in pink. Credit: NAIAD-RML/de Wit/Fischer I recently heard this comment about the service, "This would not have been possible ten years ago!" (FaceBook Live was launched in 2015.) I generally agree. It has become easier because of today's social media platforms. However, I do remember being "snowed in" as a teenager in the sixties in Vandalia and watching my pastor preachin...

It always helps me to try to quantify or graphically measure what I'm thinking about. I guess this is because I am a visual person and need to diagram, conceptualize, or even try to sketch the thoughts I'm thinking in order to understand them. The other day in a small group setting, we were discussing how to grow in our capacity to love others, especially those who are different from us. I suggested that we first needed to identify the recipients of that love. Taking a marker in hand, I began drawing on the whiteboard several concentric circles like the ripples made from a pebble dropped into a body of water and then titled this simple image, "Quantifying Our Relationships!" Each circle became a way to specifically show the levels of our relationships in life. The inner core represented ourselves. Then going outward, we segmented other relations like our immediate family, relatives, close friends, next door neighbors, fellow workers, the many acquaintances we have...

Everywhere I go these days, I am reminded of my age! It started years ago after turning fifty at a time when I was beginning to leverage that membership card from the organization that advocates for senior adults! I was being offered the "senior discount" at the local donut shop and other eateries without asking for it. It had me wondering, "How did they know I had just got my senior membership card?!" I soon realized that I was "showing my age" as we say, but it wasn't because I was carrying a plastic senior card in my wallet. Rather, it was because, "I was showing my age!" Literally! In my fifties, my hair was turning gray like my mother's! And, my shoulders were rounding so that I was slumping even more with each passing year. Why is it that we always seem to blame our parents or genetics for these developmental changes? Photo credit: Charles Deluvio unsplash.com/s/photos/aging Anyway, I shouldn't have been surprised the ot...