This past weekend was the first one since the “Before Times” that felt almost normal. Next to normal. We played outside with friends, shared pizza on the back patio with others, and worshipped inside (masked!), with singing and everything. It was my first time preaching for actual real live people in the UCG sanctuary since joining UCG as your minister in September. 

It was amazing. So good to approach a three day weekend knowing I didn’t have to entertain the kids all by myself. So good to hear live music. So good to be with others. Yes, we were masked, and yes, we were careful, but it felt so normal. So nice. By Tuesday morning, though, I was exhausted. I hadn’t done that much people-ing in more than a year. It was so good, but it was also new, again; so good, but also different, more fraught. It wasn’t quite normal, not as it had been before, but it was close: next to normal. 

As our COVID-19 infection rates continue to drop, and as increasing numbers of people are eligible to receive a vaccine (my 13 year old gets her second shot today!), it feels as though the world is opening up again. Feels as though we can return to the things — the places and communities — we love and have been missing. We may be masking for a while yet (especially until the under-12s in our community can be vaccinated), but I am breathing deep sighs of relief for the first time in forever. 

At a recent staff day, I asked our team to do a SWOT analysis: which is where an organization looks at its strengths and weaknesses and any external opportunities or threats on the horizon. We have so many strengths — and just a very few weaknesses. We’re on the other side of the biggest threats we’ve experienced in most of our lifetimes… Now I’m hoping we can look closely at what opportunities might exist for us in this new next-to-normal time, growing in our spiritual nurture of one another, expanding accessibility to our community and continuing our outreach in the wider Gainesville community. 

We can pick up where we left off to some degree, but let’s also reimagine what our life together could look like, could be. Talia is taking kids on a work tour to scenic… Gainesville. Not exactly our normal, but next to it. Committees are continuing their work in person and online, Not exactly as we’ve done it before, but… close.  Kids’ programming is coming back in person, and we’ve planned an amazing year of worship themes.

There is so much to be excited and grateful for right now and I look forward to exploring and imagining with you — even in person sometimes! — in these next-to-normal days.

Grace and Peace,

Bromleigh