Sermon preached on the UUCV Zoom Channel during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This morning marks my 51^st day in quarantine, and I’ll be honest…this past week has been HARD. It’s been 51 days since I’ve seen my family in person. 51 days since I touched another human being. It is unfathomably lonely, especially living in a two-room downtown apartment without a view. So the other day, I drug a lawn chair outside and set it up in the recessed entrance of the closed business next door to my house, and there I plopped myself for several hours. I thought sunshine and a change of scenery would ‘fix’ me. And it helped. A bit.

I sat outside for three hours that day, and more than anything, more than the sun and the birds and the breeze, the thing that lifted my spirits the most was the moment one of the CARES guests walked by on his way to the soup kitchen. He stopped at the curb, so we were a solid distance apart, and he said to me: “I know I’m not supposed to come near you, so here’s an air hug!” And he threw open his arms and started dancing right there on the sidewalk. I burst out laughing at his antics, and kept smiling the rest of the day.

That one moment, that silly little thirty-second sidewalk dance, changed my entire mood. In that moment, I felt joy, and hope, and CONNECTION, return to me.

We’re now in month three of this crisis here in Central PA, and I want to acknowledge that it’s hard to keep going. We are facing truly difficult circumstances, and in the middle of the kids screaming, and the dog pooping on the carpet, and your internet decides to go out right before your big work meeting, and you’re on your 51^st day without a hug……it can feel like entirely too much.  Like this is a struggle we just can’t win. And it’s true. We ARE the underdogs in this fight. But we humans are a resilient species. We have a nifty little habit of surviving.

Against all odds.

In the middle of truly difficult circumstances.

We keep on. It might feel like slogging, like we’re muddling through, but We. Keep. On. As a society, and as individuals.

I’ve been listening to a lot of songs on repeat lately, to help remind me to just keep breathing. One of those songs has been the new one by Alicia Keys. It’s called Underdog, and it literally reminds us to Keep on Keepin’ at what we love.

It reminds me that we all have moments in our lives where we feel like we have to defy unimaginable odds. Our circumstances don’t have to be pandemic-induced to feel like the deck is stacked against us.  That’s what it means to feel like an  “Underdog”; someone who faces seemingly insurmountable challenges, and yet, defies the odds to rise up and ‘win’ – whatever that looks like. I think of the young man who danced for me on the sidewalk the other day. He is facing challenges most of us couldn’t even imagine, and yet….he danced. His struggle didn’t go away, but at that moment, he rose above it and kept going…..and encouraged me in the process.

We, all of us,  can feel like the underdogs in our situations. It’s easy to spout platitudes or post memes that say things like “Keep Calm and Carry On” or “Good Vibes Only.” Frankly, those memes make me stabby. They aren’t helpful. They don’t acknowledge the full range of emotion that goes along with being human, let alone being a human in a crisis. If we have to boil down our collective reaction to this current situation, I much prefer the more realistic “keep on keepin’ on”.   It doesn’t imply that things have to be okay. That we have to be productive, or have it all together. Just that we keep going.

It’s important to acknowledge that we don’t always have to be, that we CAN’T always be strong. It’s okay to be weak, to acknowledge that we’re struggling. That we’re barely making it through the day. We can have a good cry, and be down, or frustrated, or sad, or stabby, or frustrated with our kids, our bosses, our computers. It’s OK. We live in a world that is just CHAOS. Pinterest perfect lives aren’t real, we’re never going to have it together at all moments, and I want to remind us, all of us, that we are the most honest and ourselves when we’re vulnerable — and that means we’re still loved and lovable and OKAY when we’re feeling off and a little bit down. It’s okay to not be okay with the way things are. It’s so important to allow ourselves to acknowledge the suck, cry about it, let it out. That’s a big transformation moment, when we release the pressure valve, so that we can then take a deep breath and keep going.

When I hear the phrase Keep on Keepin’ On, I feel the possibility of hope, and the power of control. We may not be able to change or control the world at large, but we can keep putting one foot in front of the other, taking one breath after another, and choose to celebrate those tiny victories, those moments of rising up, when we see ourselves and others choosing to keep going.

We keep on keepin’ on — together, even when we’re apart. Bev spoke of a friend who is sharing virtual hugs on Facebook. Kids in my neighborhood are decorating their front windows with rainbows and flowers. I’m picking up your wonderful donations for Cares twice a week. We are keepin’ on — together. When times make us feel the most uncertain, we truly do need each other more than we know…and our smallest actions, that we can think inconsequential, can change someone’s whole day, or week….or even their entire life. I’m sure my homeless buddy didn’t think as he was shaking his tushie on the sidewalk that he’d made a massive difference in my week….but he did. Our actions and resources might be limited right now, but our light is not. There’s never a limit on that. The light, the hope, the encouragement we share with one another, that’s what’s going to keep us going. That’s what is going to dissolve the darkness of this situation — of any situation. We have to hold each other up to the light so we can see ourselves and each other through the eyes of love and grace.

I mean, sometimes it can just be you smiling to somebody when you walk down the street, or when you’re driving past them in a car — YES, it’s possible for people to know you’re smiling even if you’re wearing a mask!!!

We have to choose to rise up for ourselves. Rise up for each other. We have to keep on keepin’ on — because even if you feel like you’re tripping, slogging, muddling through, we’re one step further than we were, and one step closer to each other.

It may have been a rough week, and while I will spare you a badly executed reenactment of the sidewalk dance that lifted me up this week, I will say to all of you — Hang in there. You’re braver, stronger, and more resilient than you even know. Keep on keepin’ on.