This says it all.

I’m hearing and reading stories about how one positive that has come from the pandemic is that shelters are being emptied out by people adopting pets.

I love that.

I personally believe that no home is complete without a dog or cat. Or hampster, gerbil, rabbit, hedgehog, goldfish . . . whatever makes your weird little heart happy.

I have a little tortie feline that keeps me company on the days when I’m working from home. She never judges (except maybe when her food bowl gets dangerously low), she never pries, and she never burdens me down with loads of expectations.

What she does do is practice her own version of self-quarantining. By that, I mean she takes naps. Lots of naps.

She occasionally speaks to me with her little chirps and grunts. She sometimes curls up in my lap and falls asleep. Sometimes she is a quiet presence nearby.

People who have pets know how comforting they can be. They know how calming and soothing it can be to see your pet at the door when you get home from work (or when you work from home and step out of the bathroom).

I may be a bit biased but I still think the best pets are rescues. It makes my heart supremely happy that people are adopting from shelters, particularly those high-kill shelters, so that they can have companionship during these times of social distancing.

My perfect world is where every shelter is empty and no animal goes unloved or unwanted but all of them find their furrever homes.

Immediately after I submitted the last blog post on my bucket list, I thought of some items that needed to be added. I could have cheated and added them in after the fact, but I thought it might be just as fun to do a sequel.

1. I want to drink that strong church coffee that needs lots of creamer and sugar just to be edible at The Church at Avenue South. Plus, I want to greet people again on Sunday mornings.
2. I want my long-delayed birthday dinner at Taqueria Del Sol on 12th Ave S.
3. I also want that table-made guacamole from Uncle Julio’s.
4. I have been missing my Downtown Franklin Friday nights, so I really need to get back to that.
5. I want to check out the free stuff section at the library, i.e. the castoffs.
6. I need my Goodwill fix.
7. I want to sit at an actual table in Chick-fil-A with that glorious Jesus chicken and some tasty waffle fries.
8. I need to get back to McKay’s to do some more wheelin’ and dealin’.

I think that covers it. Anything not on the list at this point will just have to remain left off.

These words seem more applicable today than ever. So much is unknown about the future, including how long everything will be shut down and all of us continue to stay at home.

The reason so many of us fear the dark is because it’s unknown. Most of us fear the unknown. I know I’d much prefer to return to my normal routines. The questions I ask late at night when fear creeps in are, “How much of a normal will I return to? Will there even be a normal to return to or will I have to adjust to a new normal?”

When you face an unknown future, i.e. now, you trust a known God who has time and time again shown nothing but faithfulness and loyal love. His track record is impeccable. You can always trust in the known God who has made Himself known to us in Jesus.

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

I’m hoping my little bucket list will inspire you to create your own list. You can always steal from my list, but I’m hoping you will be more creative and out of the box with yours.

1. I want to go back to Bell Buckle. It’s been decades (literally) since I was last there, but I have happy vague memories of that place.
2. I want the biggest, fattest cheeseburger ever from McCreary’s Irish Pub, complete with those fat fries and a sweet tea.
3. I want to hike off all those calories at Radnor Lake State Park. Plus, I want to see all the deer and other wildlife and breathe in nature again.
4. I’d like to go on a road-trip of some sort. I’m not sure how short or how long or to what destination, but it needs to be at least out of my zip code.
5. I want to finally go see The Hermitage again. I have more vague memories of this place that I want to flesh out.
6. I want to see people again. Not that family doesn’t count, but you know what I mean.
7. I want to order hot tea from Starbucks and sip it while reading a good book (or binging something off Netflix).
8. I want words like coronavirus, self-quarantine, social distancing, and COVID-19 to be in the past tense, as in something we overcame and can look back on instead of facing it every day.

You can also add your ideas here. I may or may not add to my own list as more ideas pop into my head (most of which may or may not involve the consumption of food).

“Anxiety and fear are what we know best in this fantastic century of ours. Wars and rumors of wars. From civilization itself to what seemed the most unalterable values of the past, everything is threatened or already in ruins. We have heard so much tragic news that when the news is good we cannot hear it. But the proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well. And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well but as one who has faced the cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God. In the end, his will, not ours, is done. Love is the victor. Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord has risen” (Frederick Buechner, Bread and Wine).

Christ our Lord has risen. That’s the hope we hold on to these days, especially on this Easter Sunday smack dab in the middle of a pandemic.

That tomb that held Jesus for three days is empty. The cross did not have the final word. All that the world, hell, and the grave threw at God in Jesus were not enough to hold Him down. He has overcome.

I revisit an old Easter toast that I first discovered a few years back that applies more than ever in these times: “I raise my glass, and drink to Love that never gave up.”

1. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind-of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blu-Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of a Word document and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with “Miller Lite” than “Kay”.

17. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

18 How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

19. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

20. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Jeans? Jeans never get dirty; and you can wear them forever.

21. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket; finding their cell phone; and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey…but I’d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

22. The first testicular guard, the “Cup,” was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it took only 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Steven H. Nowak

In the tradition of orthodox Christianity, Good Friday is the day that Jesus died on the cross. It is a somber day, following Maundy Thursday, with less focus on celebration and more on reflection.

I’m thankful that the story didn’t end on Good Friday.

I’m thankful this story won’t end with a pandemic of coronavirus.

I suppose that we call this particular Friday good isn’t because of the gory and brutal events of the crucifixion, but what came from it– namely, the forgiveness of sins and direct access to God by the tearing of the temple curtain.

Still, if the story ends with Good Friday and no Easter Sunday, there’s no forgiveness of sin. There’s no hope. We might as well all go live however we want and cram as much wanton pleasure into our short lives as we can.

But as a sermon once heard goes, “It’s Friday . . . . but Sunday’s comin'”

“There are times when everything looks very dark to me——-so dark that I have to wait before I have hope.Waiting with hope is very difficult,but true patience is expressed when we must even wait for hope. When we see no hint of success but refuse to despair, when we see nothing but the darkness of night through our window yet keep the shutters open because stars may appear in the sky, and when we have an empty place in our heart yet will not allow it to be filled with anything less then God’s best—- that is the greatest kind of patience in the universe. It is the story of Job in the midst of the storm, Abraham on the road to Moriah, Moses in the desert of Midian, and the Son of Man in the garden of Gethsemane. There is no patience as strong as that which endures because we see “him who is invisible”(Hebrews 11:27) It is the kind of patience that waits for hope.

Dear Lord, You have made waiting beautiful and patience divine. You have taught us that Your will should be accepted, simply because it is Your will. You have revealed to us that a person may see nothing but sorrow in his cup yet still be willing to drink it because of a conviction that Your eyes see further then his own.

Father, give me Your divine power—- the power of Gethsemane. Give me the strength to wait for hope—to look through the window when there are no stars. Even when my joy is gone, give me strength to stand victoriously in the darkest night and say, “To my Heavenly Father, the sun still shines”. I will have reached the point of greatest strength once I have learned to wait for hope. Strive to be one of the few who walk this earth with the ever present realization– every morning ,noon, and night– that the unknown that people call heaven is directly behind those things that are visible. (Galatians 5:5) By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope” (George Matheson).

“The tongue is our most powerful weapon of manipulation. A frantic stream of words flows from us because we are in a constant process of adjusting our public image. We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us that we talk in order to straighten out their understanding. If I have done some wrong thing (or even some right thing that I think you may misunderstand) and discover that you know about it, I will be very tempted to help you understand my action.

Silence is one of the deepest disciplines of the spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification. One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our justifier. We don’t need to straighten others out” (Richard Foster, Seeking the Kingdom).