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"I Miss Your Face"

 

(Photo cred: Rebecca Martin)

(Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column August 26, 2020)

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:8-12)

One of the downsides of having lived in a number of different places where I’ve met and developed friendships is the difficulty of maintaining those relationships. I have my friends from high school in northwest Indiana, friends from college and summers in youth ministry who now live from coast to coast and Canada, and friends from other churches and towns I’ve served in. I can’t possibly be involved in the lives of others as much as I’d like.

One of my friends, a co-worker from Kentucky, used to say, “I miss your face.” Even with Facebook and now Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, those social media platforms are not a substitute for face-to-face interaction. They can give me an idea of some of the highlights of peoples’ lives, but not everyone has those and there’s much we don’t post that is still important to who we are and what we’re going through. I’m horrible at keeping up relationships by phone; I’d rather see someone in-person. There are people who I miss.

In the age of a global pandemic, I’m guessing the vast majority of us can probably think of someone we miss. As a pastor, I miss those who haven’t returned to weekly in-person worship and who are shut in. I get it! If you’re a Baldwin CRC member, I’m not mad at you. I understand the caution, but know you’re missed by me. If you’re a member of another area church, I’m 99.9% sure I can speak for your pastor and tell you they miss you, too. Even when you can visit someone over Skype, Zoom, Facetime, and other video services, it’s just not the same as in person.

Part of this goes back to what the apostle Paul captured in his longing to see the believers in Rome. “…I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith…” It does all of us good to be together—not only relationally, but for the encouragement of our faith in Christ as well. For now, we pray for each other, for those we miss, and we pray that we may see each other again soon that we may all be strengthened in our faith.

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