I do not watch much TV. Yes, even in quarantine. I watched more TV before quarantine began if that is believable; my routine was to go home to let my dog out, make lunch and watch half an episode of a History Channel show called “Alone.”
In the show, survivalist folks attempt to last alone in the wilderness for as many days as possible with only 10 items. Food is usually the main issue, but so many people are beaten down by things they never would have dreamed would be a concern. One contestant was beaten down by darkness. The sun comes up, rises high and then sets, all without ever touching land anywhere near his camp. He cannot fathom going on living in shadows, and he makes the incredibly risky move to uproot his camp and go to a new space that has sunlight.
For many of us, this has felt like an interminable season of loneliness and darkness. It is suffocating and can at times bring us to tears, looking off in the distance seeing the “could be” and “once was” of life before March. Many of us are at that decision point of taking the risk and “moving camp” to get to the sunlight, whatever that may be.
So where is the hope when we feel like we are trapped in darkness? It is in the new dreams being hatched, in the work that no one would have ever dreamed had we not been put in this space, in the students who now know how to pastor in a pandemic because of the amazing work of local churches. The seminaries are standing strong and taking measure of how we do life in new places without walking away from past practices that were good and may be again. We are seeking to explain how we may live more fully into the days ahead and prepare people for a rapidly changing church.
We are hopeful because we can have more open conversations about race. We can ask why it is OK that some students are more affected by COVID-19 and the financial pressure than others. Although we are practicing isolation, we are reflecting more about what it means to be a good neighbor and how we treat one another. I am hopeful that we are never the same after this — that we are more able to be the church and what Christ calls us to be having had serious and difficult conversations about funding, buildings, online education and opening our systems wider to those of other races and cultures.
We are heading to a new space, and things are changing. But we are hopeful because we will be in the light. When we love and care for the least of these, we will be doing the good work of God for the community. My peers at other seminaries are doing amazing work dreaming and doing things for which none of us signed up or prepared for. We are tired, and sometimes scared, but we are dreaming and trying new things and finding receptive new students. We, and our new classes, are all hopeful.
JD Herrera is vice president for enrollment management at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas.
