It doesn’t matter where you have to praise, thank, or worship God from. The pandemic has certainly proven that.
It’s unfortunate when people labor under the misapprehension that God has stepped out for a minute, and left some punk in charge. There’s enough to be anxious about without being made to feel you have to disregard your health and life in order to do anything, let alone feed a religious habit, or satisfy a religious bully.
Position and location might be a hindrance to some, and a deal breaker for others. If you have to praise God all by yourself from a corner, in a basement, behind a wall, with no lights or windows, it's doable. He will hear, inhabit, and move on your behalf. It may seem miraculous to you. For Him, it’s all in a day’s work. It’s funny how people tell of God’s omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience but spew manipulative tirades that compare attending a church service to a trip to the grocery store.
Hebrews 10:25 admonishes us not to forsake assembling, and the aim for many is to obey God. He is, however, wise and intelligent. I think He’d like His people to be so, as well. Technology has made it possible to "meet" throughout the pandemic. Ministries that took advantage of virtual options, and did it with excellence, are to be commended.
The matter of the heart is to realize just what it is you're engaged in when you DO assemble. There has been an awful lot of time to reevaluate that, and I’m sure that some people will never return to the dysfunction, error, and godlessness that characterized their “church” experiences. They now know that there was nothing normal about it that they'd like to resume.
If the primary focus isn’t God, what’s the point? If you’re in the middle of a pandemic, where’s the logic? What’s the payoff? Who benefits? Among the over 6 million Covid-related deaths, were people who insisted, argued, and preached that assembling and gathering while a highly contagious, deadly virus was circling the globe, was safe, necessary, and non-negotiable. That’s not martyrdom. That’s preventable misfortune.
You've got to know that there's a purpose for going to the House of God that transcends routine and habit-- and overrules what people think. Obey God. Embrace genuine service. Pray. There's a huge difference between actively worshiping God with others who believe, and occupying a building with busy, religious spectators.
There's no post-Covid-- not yet anyway. A new variant has emerged. Many venues are open, but the daily obituaries and requests for prayer dictate that we're not "back". The pandemic is still underway (no matter how many people are over it, or refusing to talk about it), and so are countless opportunities to BE the Church.
Stay safe.
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