At the time of publication, the “two-weeks-to-flatten-the-curve” quarantine has been extended to an excruciating nine months; what began as baking banana bread and extended staycations turned into… something else. For almost all audio professionals, summer gig work was nonexistent. We have collectively experienced a lot of grief over pandemic, economic collapse, and social chaos.
Tech professionals and volunteers have had it especially hard in this new season. While everyone is adapting to survive, techies are running on fumes, adapting to an ever-changing set of demands and challenges while simultaneously supporting everyone.
You may feel more like “MacGyver” than ever before, employing metaphorical chewing gum and fishing wire to make tech equipment do things they weren’t designed to do – and you’re doing it with a short learning curve and a lot of underappreciated elegance. On behalf of the folks in the pews and the pulpit, I would like to thank you for this unseen hero work. We literally could not do this new way of life without you.
I can’t imagine how daunting this is for you. How are you doing, friend?
You may have skipped over that question, but real talk, how are you doing? Right now. Right in this moment.
Most of us have experienced a drought of human connection this year. One only need scroll Facebook for a few minutes to see folks sharing memories of summer concerts passed, commiserating over how much they miss live music and time with friends. We’re also missing weddings, baptisms, funerals, and in-person church services. In short, we’re missing out on the ways that human beings mark the important moments of life in community.
We’re all dealing with some level of loneliness or disconnect, on top of which we may feel behind in our jobs or personal lives. You know what’s beautiful about this? New life only comes from brokenness and chaos. In the beginning, God sorted form from chaos. The result was light, and God called it Good.
There is light at the end of this tunnel, friend. We don’t know how long the tunnel is, or how dark it may get in the meantime, but we have hope that with the merest pinprick of light that we are headed in the right direction. Best of all, we have God and we have each other.
As we ease into the things of winter, I hope that my friends in the tech field can reframe all that 2020 has wrought and look forward towards something brighter, the new day just breaking across the horizon. As tough things get, there are some practices we can incorporate to make life a little bit better. Ask yourself, in full honesty, the following questions:
“How am I doing?” I encourage you to envision yourself as a kid and have a conversation with kid-you to see how they’re doing. When you ask, you might be surprised what you hear back.
“What do I need?” Unmet needs might be as simple as “I’m so busy I haven’t stopped to eat today. I need food and rest,” or as complicated as, “Everything has changed so quickly and I feel inadequate to adapt.” Our unmet need might look like financial security as we struggle to make ends meet while adapting to a changing economy, or personal security as we deal with having to pick up new skills on the fly. In the immortal words of The Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need.”
“How can I make things better for myself and others?” Chaos and unmet needs are invitations for creativity and imagination. There are creative solutions to almost every problem, but we have to accept that it may look different than we ever imagined and that it takes effort to make things better.
How often do you say “thank you” to people in public, such as retail clerks and toll booth operators? How often do you express thanks to your friends and family or your coworkers? I’m willing to bet it’s not as often as you (or they) would like. When we habitually express gratitude, we align ourselves powerfully with God’s own love. Our natural bias towards negativity is softened when we take time to consider the mundane and miraculous way God is moving in our lives. Thank yourself and thank those around you. We’re all trying our absolute best.
