Empty Chairs

Walking around our neighborhood during the Corona Virus “Stay Safe, Stay Home” has looked different than ever before. People are out, talking from a 6-foot distance or from across the street, greeting strangers, stopping to pet dogs, taking the time to be friendly and attentive to those around them. The reality that we are all experiencing the same thing and are needing social interaction, is bringing us together.

The chairs in front yards or on front porches in the past have baffled me. They hardly get used. They sit empty mocking us as a people group without true community. The difference today is, they are getting used. People are sitting in them, talking with those who walk by or quietly observing, ready for interaction as the opportunity arises.

Governing leaders are talking about how to ease out of the “shutdown” that most states have imposed. Some of us will go back to the way it was before and others of us will resist it. Who wants to go back to empty chairs on the front porch? Perhaps none of us do, but if we open up everything in our lives back to the way it was, gradually the distractions will take us away from those chairs.

Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us that we should spend time thinking of ways to help each other to love more and to do more good deeds. It reminds us that the way to do this is to keep meeting together and encouraging each other. When we pile on the workload, the responsibilities, the events, and the obligations, we don’t have time to fill those chairs. Even if we did make an effort to use the chairs in front, our minds would be so distracted and perhaps we wouldn’t speak to those walking by. Eventually, we would tire of being in the front where others would interrupt our thoughts and we would move to the backyard. The chairs would be empty once again.

It’s easy to say yes as opportunities arise. We want to feel we have a purpose and want to be a part of what it seems everyone else is a part of. It’s much more difficult to say no to things. If we don’t purposefully choose to say no to some things as they are allowed back into our lives, those front chairs that are filled today will be empty tomorrow.