Tarrying in a Time of COVID-19

Hello Friends.
What unprecedented days. We hope you're hanging in there. We were ready to send a much different update only seven days ago. But everything, for everyone, has obviously changed in light of COVID-19.
The update we still want to share is that School of Love recently began a new rhythm of life together: tarrying. On a night in late February, our cohort gathered for its monthly Breaking Bread meal (see picture above). Afterward, we transitioned to a unique tarrying service designed by School of Love's Co-Executive Director, Terrance Hawkins. During this service we sang, shouted, danced, moaned, cried, meditated on Scripture, and "centered down" in prayer. Together we waited, anticipating that the God who loves us would meet us right where we were. And meet us, God did!
When we gathered, no one could have imagined the novel coronavirus' impending effect on all of American life. But so much of what happened that night-the moaning, crying, shouting, singing, meditating-is tailor-made for these days. Each day since, in fact, I've re-watched videos of the service to let my soul emit groanings that are too deep for words.
You don't need to get into a spiritual mood to "center down" in prayer. The whole point is for God to meet you wherever-and however-you are.
"Tarry," a term used throughout Scripture, means to wait expectantly on the Lord. Historically, various tarrying practices have played a critical role in the black church in America. In painful, dehumanizing, and oppressive social conditions, "crisis tarrying" has birthed an alternative imagination for black life. Enslaved Africans, for instance, came alive as God's children by illegally worshipping and waiting for God in all-night Hush Harbors; similarly, the black church ignited America's great freedom movements by waiting for the Lord at the altar, mourner's bench, shut-ins, and more. These are just two of many examples of how, in crisis, African Americans have tarried to come alive to the living God-to inhabit a counter-world that "if God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31).
Tarrying has been critical to other Christian traditions as well. Yet most of these traditions have used different terms to designate this practice: solitude, silence, stillness, meditation, lectio divina, prayer walks, contemplative prayer, and otherwise.
Seeking a beloved community of every tribe, nation, and tongue, School of Love appreciates and learns from the church's manifold ways of tarrying on the Lord. We do, however, keep in focus what the black church teaches so well: tarrying, while it is certainly about love of God, is also about love of neighbor! Even if we are alone in solitude, silence, or contemplative prayer, we do not tarry to escape to some wonderland of private spirituality. Rather, we do so to become more deeply 'rooted and grounded' in reality-namely, "As for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God" (Hos. 12:6). Longing to live into this integrative reality, wherein the personal and social dimensions of the Gospel need not compete, School of Love's life together now includes the rhythm of tarrying.
We know this rhythm isn't easy. Indeed, for many Christians today, tarrying feels like pie in the sky-a nice idea, perhaps, but an unrealistic way to live life in the "real world." For the "real world" is moving faster than ever; stimulating ourselves with feverish activity has become the mark of how alive we (and our institutions) are; the digital "attention economy" invests more to secure our screen time than the entire economy invests in oil; stillness has come to feel like failure; disconnection, like missing out; and boredom, like the enemy. It's no wonder we keep doing. And doing. And doing.
COVID-19 only exacerbates many of these cultural conditions. Unhinged and disoriented, many of us are feeling the urge to try and control the uncontrollable by manically continuing to do. I confess that, even as I write this, I desperately want another "hit" of news or social media. I want the next update. And the next. And the next. Just some kind of stimulation, some kind of diversion. Tarrying-disciplining my attention to vigilantly wait on the Lord-feels like the last thing to do right now!
But it's been said, the last shall be first. The "real world" may not work like this; yet, the "really real" world does. We, at School of Love, yearn to live deeply into the "really real"-especially in these days. Cohort participants have thus begun tarrying for at least one hour per week. If you're interested in taking up this practice, please feel free to email info@schooloflovews.com. We're happy to send a couple of our Tarrying Guides. Tarrying is in addition to our other cohort rhythms of semiannual retreats, monthly Breaking Bread dinners, semimonthly education, practicing the Christian Year, and daily common prayer. And we still have more rhythms to come! We'll update you on those in subsequent months.
In the meantime, we realize that this post hasn't offered a great pearl of insight to change your life in the days of COVID-19. It has, on the other hand, reiterated the psalmist's invitation to live into the practice of tarrying: "Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" (Ps. 27:14). Through this and other practices, we pray that God would birth in us an alternative imagination for these days. We pray that, "holding fast to love and justice," we'd come alive to the living God and our most vulnerable neighbors.
Thank you for coming alongside School of Love for this journey. May the God of peace bless you, keep you, and make his face to shine upon you and your loved ones in these difficult times.

With hope,
Clay Cooke, Co-Executive Director
Reach Clay at info@schooloflovews.com