SUNDAY SERVICES:

What do you associate with summer?  Here in Florida, we get to do certain summer activities year round, like go to the beach or barbecue.

I do go to the beach year round, but I only go in the water in the summer!  I hate cold water.

One of my favorite things about the summer: the fruit.  When the watermelons go deep, deep on sale, my heart skips a beat.  It is my favorite fruit by far.  When I was pregnant with my third child, I cut up an entire watermelon, propped the bowl up on my swollen belly, and ate the entire thing while I watched So You Think You Can Dance.  

Ah, summer memories…

This year New Covenant has a new way to launch into summer.  It involves looking up and looking out.

Did you grow up on Sesame Street like I did?  Then perhaps you too know the song:

Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day

It’s an outdated song because we don’t meet the people in our neighborhood each day.

At least I don’t.

I live in Winter Springs Village.  It has green spaces, a community pool and mailbox area, and front porches on every house.  My family has the smaller sized home—a bungalow—and our houses sits on a zero lot line.  That means I can almost reach out and touch my neighbor’s house.

And I still don’t know my neighbors.

We live in an age of looking down at our phones, electric garage door openers, and minding our own business.  Gone is the neighborhood economy (“May I borrow X?”) and the front porch leisure while kids play on the sidewalk.  With the pandemic, talking to strangers is more than odd—it’s hazardous.  

Is this a problem?  Not for some, but it is for me.

Because God tells me to love my neighbor.  

Let me tell you a story I am embarrassed to admit.

When I first moved to Central Florida, I was amazed by all the radio stations.  Coming from rural Virginia where there were literally two stations (and even they went in and out), I was delighted to find so many options, including a Christian radio station.

One day soon after I moved here I was in line for the drive-up teller at the bank.  I was blaring some Christian music.  As I approached the teller, I turned the radio down.  Way down.

I can sit here and tell you it was because I anticipated needing to hear the teller clearly.

But that wasn’t it.

A life free from worry.  To some of us, it sounds like Shangri-La: wonderful and impossible to find.  But we aren’t doomed to be worry's prisoner.  Read on if you would like to know “How do I stop worrying?”

I am no stranger to this topic.  Over the course of my life I have chewed my nails to stubs, bitten the skin around my nails, pulled out my eyelashes, and stress-eaten cheese, chocolate, and jellybeans.  

I have stayed awake countless nights, playing out different horrible scenarios.  I have had panic attacks and crying jags.  It’s not pretty to admit, but I have let worry take over my life.

If someone had said to me in a time of intense worry, “I know the secret of how to stop worrying,” I would have laughed (bitterly) in his face.  

I am about to tell you about one of the most impactful worship experiences of my life. What do you think it was?  Can you imagine the scene?

“Wait a minute...that’s what I weigh? Is that right?”

“That’s what the scale says, sweetie. Don’t feel bad, that’s everybody this year.”

I knew 2020 had been a year of stress eating.  My daily dose of stress relief during quarantine was anything covered in cheese dust (popcorn, Cheetos, Pringles, chips, goldfish, etc.).  

And yet I was still slack-jawed in the doctor’s office, staring at that number.   I just wasn’t prepared to see exactly how much I had gained.  

That was a week ago, right before Christmas.  And now...to plan.

This year my son had a Lego Star Wars Advent calendar.  Yes, such a thing exists.  Each day he opened a little cardboard flap to take out the pieces of a tiny tie fighter or Darth Vader in a Christmas sweater.  He loved it: every day a new discovery, something to look forward to.  

I need that, too.

Have you heard of the “Get Along Shirt”?  Faced with bickering siblings, you can stuff your two kids into a man’s extra large T-shirt, so they are forced to be together and work it out.  

I have never tried this in my home, but when my two older ones were younger, I used to make them give each other a hug after an argument.  Then they had to look into each other’s eyes and say one nice thing about the other person.  Sounds great, right?  

The reality was that they hugged each other in the most reluctant, insincere hug they could conjure.  Then, when told to say something nice, their answers would include a monotone, deadpan, “You have nice hair.” 

Are you a “Christmas Maker”?  Take this quiz to find out:

In my house, I have trained my kids not to answer the door for a stranger.  This rule began when they were really young, and now they are just in the habit.