How is the Social Distancing going for you?
Many are relegated to their homes for the first time in a long time. No running to and from, appointments to keep, kids in sports or other activities. Nope. It is as if we have hit the brick wall. Stopped in our tracks. Spending time with the family in a house the size of a cracker box, trying to be nice and not fight over the television remote. Now, how is Social Distancing going for you? Honestly.
Fred and Tom were having a phone conversation. Tom asked, “How’s it going Fred?”
Fred replied, “First week, Martha was right at my side, doing everything I asked of her, cooking and bringing me coffee, drinks, snacks. She even would sit with me on the coach and watch the sports channels with me. She would fall asleep, start snoring and I’d nudge her with my elbow. The second week, she started asking me to do this or that, but I’d invite her to come sit with me. I’d even call her baby doll, as I assured her, ‘I’ll get to it.’ She’d get upset, storm off, slap doors shut. It was a little tense. This week she started spending more time outside.”
Tom said, “I’m sorry to hear that. So, you say she is spending more time outside, does that mean you two are getting along better now?”
“Well, I guess it is better now. It is fairly quiet here. She must be getting a garden ready; but we have never had a garden before. Martha is working outside a great deal, comes in dirty and sweaty.”
Tom was ending the call with Fred, when his wife, Sara, came through and saw the pained look on his face. She asked, “Something wrong, Tom?”
“I was talking to Fred and he and Martha don’t seem to be handling the Social Distancing thing really well. I’m worried about them.”
As Sara reached for a glass, she said, “I talked to Martha yesterday.”
“You did?” Tom asked, “Did she say how she is doing?”
“She is just fine,” Sara replied, “staying busy outside. But she asked a very strange question.”
“Really, what kind of strange question?”
Sara said, “Martha wanted to know how deep a grave has to be in our state.”
Poor Fred. He thinks she is planting a garden for him.
We need a little laughter in this time.
Recently, I caused my girls and a few friends to laugh at me.
We were in a local eating establishment. Well, it was the Triple R (Matthew Reams, this really happened in your restaurant) when I noticed a small, round looking device plugged into an outlet. It appeared to me to be one of those things you talk to, so I stepped back from it and said, “Alexis, tell me a joke.”
Nothing happened, so I said again, “Alexis what time is it?”
My daughter was the first to notice that her sweet, caring, loving father was losing what was left of the mind he had. “Daddy, what are you doing?”
“Alexis won’t talk to me.”
That was when my wife looked up and said, “Alexis, who?”
“That Alexis,” I said as I pointed to the little round thing sitting on the floor.
They both looked at me as if I had a piece of lettuce stuck in my nose and then looked at the floor. Then, they began to laugh…
“Daddy, it is not ‘Alexis,’ it is ‘Alexa,’” Savannah said while laughing.
Tina said, “Jeff, that is not an ‘Alexa,’ that is an air freshener.
Solomon wrote:
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22 HCSB)
It may be hard to have a joyful heart at the moment. We are living in a difficult time, with sickness and death constantly as reminder for us. This is a time very unique for us with everything being changed for us, as we Shelter in Place. But it does not mean we cannot spend a little time laughing. It will help keep from allow our broken spirit brings us further down.
God is still in control. He is still working out His purposes. He will show us His faithful love.
Until next time…