Keeping in Touch

As I was about to end a one-off Zoom meeting at work while working from home, I gave one of the usual  end of the meeting words to all who were online…’Thanks guys and keep in touch’. Out of nowhere my youngest son, in his usual pesky demeanour said to me…’Dad, touching is not allowed nowadays’. Funny that one comment. But come to think of it, one of the few good things about this frustrating lockdown is that it does give us a lot to think about, and one thing that it has made me consider is the importance of touch. We are living in days when any physical contact is frowned on, if not forbidden, and, rightly, we need to be careful about what and who we touch.

I find it interesting that although we talk about ‘managing to keep in touch’ with people through technology, the irony is that the one thing we aren’t doing is touch. We link up with people through sight and sound, but not with physical contact. That inability to touch is a loss. We are now reduced to bows, hand waves or facial gestures.

What is more uncomfortable is the loss of touch when we are in contact with those we love; those people we would like to hug, hold or kiss. I kind of miss during prayer fellowships when we have to shake hands with friends and pat them. I realise it may be a bit agonising, because in the absence of physical contact, for those who find themselves in solitary isolation. Amidst all the serious concerns about this pandemic, one that’s overlooked is what we might call ‘touch deficiency’.

Although we take touch for granted, it is extraordinarily powerful and therapeutic. Medical science has confirmed how vital touch is for babies, yet that importance continues throughout our life.

Touch has been shown to improve our immune system, reduce pain, decrease blood pressure and alleviate depression. Sometimes, it raises our self-esteem when someone pats you in the back for a job well done.

Touch conveys intimacy and can often say more than words. Touch can carry different meanings too: comfort, warning, rebuke or love. Touch shows the importance of physical contact; that we can say of some emotional event that we were ‘touched’ by it.

Sadly, the very fact that so much has been made over the last few years about ‘inappropriate touching’ testifies to the power of touch.

I have realised that touch plays an important role in the Christian faith. On almost every page of the Gospels we read of some aspect of physical contact. The baby Jesus is wrapped in cloths and put in a manger. As an adult, Jesus bathes feet and heals by touch. Ultimately, Jesus is betrayed by a kiss, killed by physical force and carried away into a grave. When raised from the dead, Jesus confirms that he is no vision or ghost by allowing himself to be touched by his disciples. Remembering this, the apostle John wrote, ‘We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands’. In Jesus, the remote and untouchable God becomes literally someone who is at hand.

The physical emphasis of Christianity continues into the church. It’s there in the new covenant that Jesus created which focuses not on a form of words, but on the very physical elements of bread and wine. It’s there in baptisms and in the laying on of hands for healing. It’s there in greeting one another ‘with a holy kiss’ or whatever modern form we find culturally appropriate.

Touch is valuable. It should be part of our lives and it should be part of our fellowships. Sadly, touch reminds us at the deepest level how much we are valued and loved. It’s a fascinating thought that, in Jesus, human beings are able to touch the God who loves us so much that he put on flesh and became one of us. 

So if you are suffering ‘touch deficiency’ at the moment, remember that God understands that need. When ‘this is all over’ may we all be those who value touch a little bit more and are more ready to share it with those who need it and receive it ourselves. And, in the meantime, to use a phrase that can be a cliché but is in fact a reality, may we all know something of God’s touch at this time.

By:

Lorvic Osorio

https://dmonk64.blogspot.com/

On Being Scared and Isolated

This COVID19 virus is causing a lot of disruption in life isn't it? As of this writing, the government, state and federal has imposed quarantine and travel restrictions. There are restrictions on public gathering, schools is starting to close for a while and our experience is likely no different than your experience right now – a certain panic, a fear, a worry. And so when we're going through all this disruption and change its natural to ask this question - How will this end? And because we just don't know we kind of get a little uncomfortable and we get afraid. In other words, we get afraid of the unknown.

Nowadays, we live in a culture where we're not used to not knowing the answer. We live in an Information Age where we have a question we just go to Google and it gives us the answer instantly. I mean, recently I heard my two boys speak and ask our Google Home Nest about the weather and query the latest news and it will reply instantaneously. Caleb, our youngest, would then say to me, ‘Daddy, I told you Google know all the answers. I replied back ‘No, she knows facts but she does not have wisdom. I guess, that's what we need right now. We need wisdom.
You see Google can tell you that you were born on what day, but it can't tell you why you were born. It can't tell what your purpose of life is. It can't tell you what will make you happy. We live in an era  where we have all the information in the world at our fingertips but we lack  wisdom and discernment. Right judgment to be able to see the way God sees and then know the  grace to act the way we ought to act. And so, we fall into the trap of fear. Question is… do we have a reason to be afraid?

While the answer is no and how I can say that so confidently well because if we just look to the life of Jesus and the Gospels he never gave people reason to be afraid. He never affirmed people ever in their fear. He never stood on the side of a mountain with thousands of people around him and said blessed are the fearful…for they shall inherit the earth. Or blessed are the anxious of heart for they shall be satisfied. Jesus never said anything remotely close to that. In fact, Jesus said the opposite. didn't he say ‘Peace I leave, you my peace I give to you. I don't give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid’.

What then should be our posture? Now that self-isolation is what we now face, how do we handle our situation? Let me share three words that I hope will help.

The first word is resolution. It’s vital to take charge of the situation and not let the situation take charge of us; at the end of this we all want to be a victor, not a victim. In as much as we can, set ourselves targets and goals. Our grandparents were called to war, we are being called to sit on our lounges – we can do this!
However justified we may feel it is, don’t slip into becoming a wreck, don’t be negative or pessimistic, don’t moan. There are some people who bring happiness wherever they go and other people bring happiness whenever they go! Have a happy attitude and don’t drain people with negative talk. Resolve to be cheerful.

Keep up with personal hygiene, change your clothes, don’t sleep until midday! Find things to do, books to read. And do projects (I am writing my blogs), clean the backyards, play boardgames with the kids). Let’s tidy and de-clutter. (Remember how ‘we didn’t have time’?). Try to get exercise, even if it’s simply walking up and down the stairs or the corridor. And let’s think and act to help others who are isolated – even a phone call or Messenger, or practically to support and assist.

This is pretty much standard psychological advice but let me add a Christian dimension to this. We need to remember that God rules over all things, including viruses, and this has not caught him unawares. A little word in the first two verses of Psalm 23 has come to mind. There, in the middle of those wonderful lines ‘The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters . . .’ Although we all desire freedom and the ability to do what we want, we are like sheep and our wise Shepherd may, when it suits him, make us lie down. God has his purposes for us in this period: let’s resolve to make the most of them.

The second thing is relaxation. Now I apologise if you are stuck in a small unit with hyperactive children and relaxation is something you are praying for, but the fact is most of us will be facing a life that has shifted down a gear or two. This may well be a blessing; one of the characteristics of modern life has been its frantic pace. Many of us are familiar with the sort of situation in which you come across a strange person in the hallway and realise that it’s a member of your family. Indeed, you may well have said as you frown at your twentieth email of the day over your morning coffee, ‘the pace of life is killing me’. Why not consider that, in this self-isolation, God is gifting us with a slow-down? In the long run it may well be the reality – and I pray that it is – that these days of self-isolation end up adding months, if not years, to your life. Our great Shepherd has slowed down life and given us time: time to pray, to read the Bible. To have those conversations with your loved ones, to send out those emails that you never got round to. To relax!

The third thing is reflection. Isolation should give us the opportunity to think about who we are and what we are doing. For a brief moment, the endless stream of traffic on the motorway of life is stopped and we’ve got the opportunity to think about where we are going. While it’s not the moment to peer into the rear-view mirror of life and reflect gloomily about our failures and disappointments, it is a good time to look forward and to think about what we value and what our purposes are. In many accounts from ex-soldiers we often hear or read something along the lines of ‘what I saw and experienced in the war changed me; I made a promise that, if I got out of this, I was going to do something with my life’. What a perceptive thought on how most people live life! Why not spend time thinking and praying, not about how unpleasant things are now, but how, once this is all over – and one day it will be – we are going to live our life in a different way.

Replace you fears and anxiousness to an attitude to resolve, relax and reflect; and may we find our period of isolation to not be a burden but a blessing.

By:
Lorvic Osorio
https://dmonk64.blogspot.com/

A 2020 Vision for the New Year

Watching one of the episodes of the “The Chosen” TV series where Nicodemus admonished one of his students and quoting the  warning of Isaiah the truth about their much-awaited Messiah: “There are many who see him but do not really perceive him.” I can’t help but comparing it about my thoughts about the new year ahead, I was reminded of the phrase ‘2020 vision’ with its sense of seeing things with perfect clarity. The Pharisees at the time of Jesus would have wanted that kind of vision Isaiah had. The word vision, of course, has a wide meaning and as we peer into this most uncertain of years, we probably all wish that we had 2020 vision of what it will bring. As the saying goes, not everything is as it seems.

In fact, vision is not just seeing. I was told that if you’ve ever strolled around an art gallery with an Art expert you soon become aware that while you may be observing the same art object, they see much deeper, far further and with much greater understanding. We have sight, they have insight; we see, they perceive.

The danger of seeing what is superficial and overlooking what is important is frequently referred to in the Bible. At least six times the New Testament refers to a solemn warning verse of the Old Testament: ‘Go and tell this people: “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving”’ (Isaiah 6:9 ) it is repeated because so many people either saw Jesus or heard preaching about him but didn’t have the vision to perceive who he really was. They missed the point: they saw the man, but not his significance; they had sight, but not insight.

One of the characteristics of our age is superficiality: the dangerous refusal to perceive what is really there. With that in mind, let me at the start of this new year, suggest three important areas where we need true vision.

First, we need to have the vision to recognise that we are not valueless but valued. There are various popular ways of looking at human beings today but a common factor is that in them we come out as being utterly insignificant. So some see us as ‘nothing more’ than the dominant species thrown up by the great lottery of evolution. Others consider that we are ‘nothing more’ than consumers whose significance is simply the role we play in the economy. Still others see us as ‘nothing more’ than ‘the electorate’ who need to be persuaded into supporting some political system. And, of course, if even the best of us have only a small value, then the ‘little people’ – the old, the poor, the sick – have even less. Behind these views are the gloomy philosophies that all existence is ultimately meaningless and that humanity is just a brief bubble of consciousness that will soon vanish into the silence of a vast, uncaring universe. Our faith begs to differ. It looks below the surface and it shows us as God sees us. Every one of us, the Bible declares, is wonderfully made in God’s image and, as such, is of infinite value. Yes, our rebellion against God has damaged and disguised our glorious status but we remain loved by God. Indeed, God values us so much that to bring us back to himself he came in Jesus, to live and die as one of us. We have value.

Second, we need to have the vision that we can be not hopeless but hopeful. The near universal view of our time is that this life is all there is. When our pulse stops, when the ECG monitor shows a flat line and definitely when the crematorium swallows our coffin, then it’s assumed that it’s the end of our story and whatever hopes and dreams, longings and memories that were once ours vanish beyond recovery. Here, too, the Christian picture is defiantly different. The Bible promises us that death is not the end but that we all live on beyond it to stand before God. There, if we have handed our lives over to Christ and through him been reconciled to God, we will be welcomed into a joyous eternity. This promise of an unending future glory for those who have come to Christ transforms our life in the present. This life may claim to be everything, but with vision we now realise that it is nothing more than a brief, vital prelude to the real thing. Far from being the end of the story, for those who know Christ it’s just the beginning. However dark our days and however difficult our lives, to know Christ is to know hope. We have hope.

Finally, we should all have the vision that we should be not purposeless but purposeful. The current dark mood that life is meaningless casts its chill shadow over all that people do. If, as is claimed, life is ultimately purposeless, then why not just go with the flow and hope that wherever the river of life carries you it won’t hurt too much? Yet, as with everything else, to perceive our lives from a Christian perspective changes such a view. There is meaning in the world and that gives us purpose. What we do counts and counts for eternity. To become a believer in Christ is not simply to be given the ultimate ‘get out of jail free’ card for endless ages; it is to be given a new spiritual passport, to be offered citizenship of an eternal kingdom, to be gifted with the Holy Spirit and to acquire a new identity as a child of God. With those tremendous privileges comes the greatest of challenges: we must use what we have been given. We must be holy as God is holy. On the diary of life we have been given blank pages and it should be our intention to fill them with things that we have done for God and his kingdom. To be saved by Christ carries with it the obligation to live for Christ. We have purpose.

At the heart of these three much needed things – value, hope and purpose – lies the unique and awesome figure of Jesus. And again, that ancient warning of Isaiah still stands true about him: there are many who see him but do not really perceive him. May we not just see Jesus as a historical figure or some ‘great moral teacher’ but as the one – the only one – who can give us those things the world cannot give: value, hope and purpose. That will be the very best sort of 2020 vision to start the year 2020.

"Sometimes you don't realize that Jesus is all you need until JESUS is all you have.”

by: Lorvic Osorio