Feeling stuck

A few days ago, our family attended a middle school open house in preparation for the new year (tomorrow)! Ideally, having the incoming sixth graders there before the two older grades for an hour would be sufficient time for kids to gather information, hear from teachers, and test out those troublesome locker combinations.  A long line of families shuffled from the gym to the sixth-grade hallway and emptied into the homeroom classes.  After a few minutes the bell would ring, and everyone would head to the next core class on the schedule.  Sounds simple enough, right?  What ensued looked more like a squeeze chute for cattle.  People spilled out into the hallway, and there they stopped.   Some were headed up the hall, some were headed down the hall… but no one was moving. By the time most folks got to their destination, it was time to head to the next room and back into the fray.  For a woman with a socially anxious kid and a claustrophobic spouse…this was less than conducive.  Alas, we survived. 

There’s a lesson in this, I just know there is…. You know, our faith is meant to be both individual and communal.  We are encouraged to have a personal relationship with the Triune God and individually invest in spiritual practices such as scripture reading, prayer, and hospitality to nurture our faith.  We are also supposed to come together and worship, study, and pray as a body collectively, so that we might find deeper meaning through these connections.  This doesn’t mean that all our preferences for worship should be exactly the same, or that we must interpret the scriptures in the same way. Occasionally, our opinions might rub up against each other, friction may occur in the community—but through mutual respect and love we should be able to keep moving along toward the same mission.  I suppose sometimes it might feel like we’re in a spiritual standstill—where in conflict no one wants to give way to someone else.  Or perhaps we choose not to enter the fray at all, and stand back with our arms crossed, shaking our heads at a situation that has gone wrong.  But, the person outside the traffic jam might be able to better see a solution to get things moving again. 

What if just one family on Thursday night in that sixth-grade hallway had said, you know what, let’s walk down past the door we are intent on entering, turn around at the end of the hall and double back to keep things moving.  No one was intentionally being rude or difficult, it’s just that everyone was so focused on their own needs they were not considering anyone else.  Alas, a little bit of communal consideration goes a long way.  A little bit of problem solving, a little bit of hospitality, and a whole lot of prayer can get us stirring again.