May 20th, 2020

So I just got finished with another Zoom meeting. This one was not with a group from the Fellowship, but another group that I’m part of—my men’s group in Lansing. Tonight was my turn to be the leader. And as the meeting was ending, I asked everyone to pause and recognize the feeling of support and connection between the nine men on the call. But there is a simpler way to say it, and it applies to all of us these days.
 
Can you feel the love?
 
This is our challenge in these days of distance and isolation and masks. I believe that when we are in our normal mode, seeing one another, shaking hands, seeing one another’s faces, perhaps even hugging, it is easier to feel the energy between us. The connection. I believe that humans want and need to be connected, and that when we are interacting we are feeling that connection, that affinity, that sense of togetherness, that affirmation that we are not alone. My shorthand word for that is love.
 
But it’s harder to focus on that connection when we are not physically together. I grew up in the era of telephones—real old-school telephones with a spiral cord attached to the wall. Talking on the phone, there was a way to focus on the voice and the connection with a loved one through their voice—but you had to concentrate. I think that today we have to re-learn that every day, and learn it in a new way. How do we focus our attention on a Zoom video call? How do we focus our attention in a text message interaction or an email interaction?
 
How can we feel the love when we are socially distanced?
 
I believe that we can do this, with intention and faith. Yesterday, for instance, I was watching a recorded yoga instruction video. “I love you all so much,” said the yoga teacher in the video. And I felt the love. It was real.
 
I will use the word magic here, which means that something is happening that’s hard to understand scientifically. By the magic of the spirit, we can feel love between each other through video, through text, through Zoom, through the phone. It’s not as easy as it is when sitting with someone and looking at them face to face, but we can do it. We must do it, because we need to know that we are loved in order to survive and to thrive during this pandemic and into the future.
 
Through the words in this message, I’m sending love to you. I invite you to find the place in yourself to receive that love—not in your thinking mind, but in your spirit. May you feel this love, freely given, and be blessed by it.
 
Prayer:
Spirit of Life and Love, we need you now. We are apart from one another and it’s harder to feel the love between us.
 
Blessed spirit, help us to see with our hearts. Help us to know that we are not alone—that friends and family love us, that others in this congregation love us, that people of good will around the world are connecting to the love within themselves to share it with others.
 
Mother Earth, help us be grounded in love. As we touch the earth, may we feel the connection to every human being also touching the earth.
 
Father Sky, carry our love between us, faster than telephone wires and truer than internet signals.
 
May all know that they are loved. May no one feel alone. May all be blessed.
 
Amen. Aho. Blessed be.
 
Andrew Frantz