Split A Piece of Wood (from the comfort of your home)

You likely thought I was going to talk about a splinter, hunh? Word on the street is, I sat on a wooden bench and got a splinter. In my backside. And had to figure a way to get it out that didn’t involve asking my Uncle. The last time he saw my backside, he was replacing a diaper. Neither one of us needed to experience him attending to my booty meat in the year of our Lord, 2020. Neither one of us. *you started singing too, didn’t you? come thruuuu mother gladys*

https://www.windowworldlexington.com/windows/sliding/

I’m writing to you on today, because I see that some people are still glad to be in the service at their church. I keep seeing these posts about places of worship and religiously affiliated associations looking for exemptions to the Shelter In Place directivers around the world, and the Physical Distancing #StaySocialTho #From6FeetOrMoreOrWiFi expectations set forth by literally every worldly governing body trying to keep you alive, in the wake of the pandemic. I know if you look out your window, you can’t see the pandemic, but just like the air, and the heavens above (to you believers) it’s there. It’s real.

My Daddie used to tell me that that good book you got over there (or on your phone) says when two or more are gathered in His name, Church can happen. I bet they needed to be in a specific building to do that back in the times of Jesus because the Pharisees were on him like gangs back in the 90s. They likely needed to come together too, in my Daddie’s growing up in the JimCrow South time (and the time before), because there were amerikkkans trying to be starting something with them. Those people found solace, safety, and salvation in the Lord’s House (that was built by men).

But in this time, in my time, and if you’re blessed to be reading this, your time too, the act of gathering hits a lil’different. We can literally come together from our physically distant homes. Be honest, DJ DNice’s #ClubQuarantine was everything! No? But you was jammin’ to Anthony Hamilton and laughing when he started yellin’ at his kids. And these make me choose battles? Teddy Riley and Babyface up next on #VERZUZ? It’s like naming a favorite kid from the world’s biggest stage with the loudest microphone.

Just think for a second. How did you feel? Were you alone? And, my God, did two or more like-minded souls gather?

Summa’yall used to think that Bedside Baptists weren’t getting the same blessings, and now look at you. That same God has made it so that you can praise in your wave caps, bonnets, and house shoes. Still get a word, on today. Still come together with the invention of wi-fi. Be blessed, in spite of (the whole pandemic outside your window).

I imagine those folks who think they need to come together using this gas (that’s also hittin’ like the 90s) to get the word, to receive the blessings, are thinking God is working in the former. But some of us aren’t foolish enough to think that God isn’t evolving with us. Frankly, all this stuff God’s anyway…well, it’s like both ours…but, you know. What if God wanted you to see that you were blessed enough to be in Church, in communion with people, every second of the day. That the fact that you could worship from the comfort of your home was a blessing. Perhaps God wanted you to know that when your car wasn’t working, or when you were really sick, you could have logged on from your phone and been praising and prophesying with the congregation. Just, maybe. ‘Cause honestly, if your place of worship is in 2020 with the rest of us, it’s likely streaming a message in real-time, or shortly after the conclusion of service. Or the same way you been watching television on YouTube or Facebook Live, about 50-11 million pastors been streaming a word that could have been for you.

Look, I can’t compel you to stay home. Just like I can’t convince you to not buy up all the toilet paper (c’mon fam, chill). I mean, look what it took for summa’yall to start washing your hands the right way (or at all, also, yall nasty)? It’s just, my heart is heavy about this dying world right now. I don’t like all yall, but I don’t want people dying like this, or worse, asymptomatically affecting others. ‘Cause I promise, if one of yall would have took my grandparents out before the Good Lord called them home, I was laying hands. And not holy ones…

But what was I saying?

I got this favorite movie. Well I have a lot of them that I really like, and depending on what I’m talking about, I’ll call it my favorite. Anyway, the movie – Stigmata. It’s about lost words, written by Jesus, the Christ, and not one of those disciples. An accounting in Jesus’ own words, by Jesus’ own hands. The Catholic Church is trying to keep the translated words a secret for fear those words would destroy the Church. That the message would tip the scales of power. That the people wouldn’t wait for the doors of the Church to open to access the Lord. What were those words?

…the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood…and I am there. Lift a stone…and you will find me…

Now I know these words (or something like them) are in places more religi’fied than that movie and this blog, but since summa’yall tried to buy plane tickets to Wakanda, work with me. Many Churches are maximizing 2020 using multiple virtual and #PhysicallyDistant medium to nuture believers and search for lost sheep. Now, I will leave you to connect the dots about some of those other “houses” of worship using government loopholes or inept government officials to encourage people to have their entire self, all the way outside during a global pandemic. ‘Cause it’s there.

I imagine the person sermonizing in your place of worship has sermonized about this sentiment – just like my Daddie. My Daddie told of us of a time where he called on the Lord as the Doctors took him into the operating room for surgery. Daddie said, his prayer consisted of one word, Jesus. Now, it might have been those smart ass doctors at Stanford, maybe it was Jesus, or some divine spirit working through them, but people die every day, and well, my Grandmama’s had been praying over my raggedly lil’ life for so long, I tend to believe a man when he says he prayed a prayer in faith. And his faith was returned to him exceedingly and abundantly.

Let me get back to this message so the choir can come up and sang another selection.

from the book, of FaceBook.

I just hope, these pastors haven’t convinced you that the only way to access the Lord, is to put your life in danger. I really hope, and pray, they haven’t convinced you to be unwise. ‘Cause whomever you’re praying to, that omnipresent being probably had something to say about foolishness and wisdom, in addition to the importance of gathering together. This is also a good time for you to look at yourself in the mirror and discuss just how devout you’ve been to all the other instructive information in that good book you got over there.

Also, when you potentially pass away from COVID-19 – because you keep going to Church when the Center for Disease Control & World Health Organization is actually, verbatim, telling you to Chill, fam – you won’t have a funeral or memorial service because well, while the doors of your Church might be open on Sunday, them people who got the body over there won’t be releasing your remains. Because, wisdom. And safety. And, well…

There. Is. A. Whole. Global. Pandemic. Outside. Your. Window.

And just in case you need a little more convincing. Do as my little sister, in Shanghai, who been #SafeInside waaaay longer than the rest of us, do what she told our other little sister to do: Just let that play let that play in the background while you’re cooking or cleaning.

Pray safe inside.

Some of us have summer birthdays.