In the summer of 1996, I had just finished middle school where I was lucky enough for a friend to invite me to attend an Olympic Basketball game in Atlanta, yet my childhood innocence was slowly trickling away as I woke up to the worried sounds of my parents who were trying to get in touch with my older brother the morning after the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. I remember learning about possible war in "The Middle East" again and a country called Afghanistan, connecting the dots with my earlier childhood awareness of the Gulf War where I learned about faraway lands such as Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Even as I faced my worries of a typical high schooler (here's a story about Freshman worries in my sermon last week), I was coming to understand the reality of how my worries didn't compare with girls across the globe or even across the cafeteria. After being the shortest player - and perhaps least athletic -- on the Tri-County Champion Middle School Girls Basketball team, I made the commitment to try out for the Freshmen team, while fully expecting/secretly hoping to not make the cut. It was not fun to practice so hard with the running drills and the late practices after school only to be a bench warmer. So much blood, sweat, and tears that seemed to never pay off. In one of the drills during tryouts, the coach kept screaming, "Pivot! Pivot!" and I remember getting confused and not knowing which way to turn. I knew the coach was screaming at me, and I knew I needed to change directions, but I had no idea what direction to turn. I was trying so hard, but circumstances outside my control were making it impossible. Neither my experience watching Olympic basketball players nor being a part of the reigning champions from my middle school team helped me much that day.
Not to make light of the suffering of generations of citizens of war-torn countries and lifelong educators who have worked so hard to sustain our school systems through 1.5 years of a global pandemic, but I feel like the world is screaming, "Pivot! Pivot!" to global leaders, to teachers, to administrators, to parents, to pastors, to ALL of us trying to figure out the best ways to live, work, and not quit on the proverbial courts of our lives. It is not fun to work so hard to keep our children and one another safe only to see a pandemic and violence rage on with circumstances outside our control. We hear the calls to "pivot," to change directions, to make a new plan, but in most circumstances, we have no idea what direction to turn. And I know the desperation I feel is perhaps only a fraction of the desperation of mothers & fathers, teachers & pastors, the most talented or the average, hardworking bench warmers like me, in Haiti, in Afghanistan, and across my daughter's cafeteria where the seats are separated by plexiglass guards attempting to keep the students safe.
I didn't make the Freshman basketball team and I cried in disappointment AND relief. I didn't want to keep pushing myself so hard for so little success in return.
And so this week, I pivot. I'm not really sure the right direction, because I know as a parent and as a pastor we want and need our children to be learning the stories of the Bible, the stories of our Christian faith, and connecting with one another as a church family to build faith community that will sustain them through all of these current events that are forcing their childhood innocence to slowly trickle away. For us at Glenn, that means for now we are moving all Children's Ministries to outdoor/masked events only. We are not opening the indoor Nursery for these precious "pandemic" babies and toddlers to meet our loving childcare staff who were so eager to welcome them and begin sharing the love and care of our church family. Our Sunday School classrooms will stay empty and keep gathering dust. Our playground and amphitheater and Zoom screens will become symbols of church for this generation of children. I cry in disappointment and relief. And with prayers that parents and pastors and teachers across the globe will have the chance to pivot for their kids, too.
Matthew 19:14 -Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Grace & Peace,
Rev. Susan Pinson