Jonathan Shradar

Studying Scripture this morning I was distracted by movement on a rock outside my office window. It was a little lizard, a baby jutting back and forth. As I watched the thought came to mind that lizard could represent the church, in this season being made new, expectant, but fragile. I have noticed a lot of little lizards this year. I can't remember seeing so many in the previous six years of our SoCal experience. Looking for food, looking to thrive. I think they are an image of us, as believers and as churches. We have had to shift and find our source. We have to be careful to ensure it is the right source because we have been made fragile by circumstance. But we will grow to maturity if we are fed and kept safe. In Jesus we find our keeping and sustenance. Surely we are not all made fragile but we can feel like we are as we are pulled in different directions and look for our true north. May we find it in Christ, follow him, start looking like him, and in him find our flourishing.

This pandemic is changing us. In uncomfortable ways and in some good ways. Let's focus on the good to get through the difficult. As I began my day this morning I was contemplating a newer reality for me, something that has taken place especially the last month. Usually I would wake up with a list to conquer, places to be, and an anxious urgency to get it all done. While I still have the same list of tasks the number of places and start times are different. But the anxious urgency has been diminished. I have the same portfolio of work, and even the same number of meetings (which are virtual or outside at a distance). But the sense of a crushing burden of the week is different. And I am okay with it. In the last year we saw the publication of numerous books on eliminating hurry as the cure to what ails us but those books often failed to deliver a fulcrum that could bring us into a different way of life. COVID did. The pandemic, if we allow it to, can shift the things we value and the

Yesterday, to the consternation of a dear friend, I witnessed a poignant illustration of the need for other voices in our lives. Voices that call us to something better than what we are focused on, and stand with us through life. A group of us were preparing to go our separate ways on a local patio when a Japanese beetle flew into the midst of our group. For those of you not in Southern California, this beetle can be quite large and sounds like a jet when it is buzzing around you in all it's green/black shining brilliance. Most of us backed away from the buzzing but the beetle acquired a target and made its attempts for the inside of my friend's shirt. She freaked. Dancing about, swinging her arms, shaking he hair out. Screams of terror! What she didn't see though as she was flailing, but what all of her friends saw, was that the beetle flew away nearly as fast as it approached. We all raised our voices "it's gone!" "Don't worry!" Our friend res