Amy Lu's View

I’m the one who moved my cheese. (Yes, cleverly trying to reference the 1998 bestseller that I’ve never read–and don’t plan to. Wikipedia describes it as a “motivational business fable,” definitely not calling to me). 

I take full responsibility, but even though it’s not a mystery, I’m not pleased with the result of my cheese relocation. I recently took a tub of perfectly good low-fat feta cheese and in the process of making salads for supper, mistakenly moved it from the refrigerator to the cupboard. 

Of course, when I discovered this the next morning, I had to move my cheese again–to the compost. Sigh. 

I did this within a week of another cheese move gone awry, when I moved an unopened block of my beloved truffle cheddar cheese from the basement refrigerator to the counter, where I let it sit out for a couple of days. That cheese also ended up in the compost. 

These cheese mishaps were not only sad, but disconcerting. What is going on that I can’t keep my cheese properly refrigerated? Am I that distracted, that flustered, that scattered?

Yes, yes I am (and the wine I’m usually drinking while making supper and moving cheese here and there definitely doesn’t help). Not constantly, not all the time, but enough that it’s sometimes frustrating and/or entertaining. 

I often describe my thoughts and attention as scattered–as in scatterbrained. My mind flits from one idea or task to the next, and I don’t stay focused. My emotions often feel scattered, too–they’re contradictory and I don’t know what to feel. I’m scatterhearted (can I take credit for inventing this word?) 

“Scattered” also applies to my physical possessions. My clothes, dishes, papers, latch hook yarn, are all frequently strewn about various rooms and surfaces. 

I definitely experienced scatteredness in the Before Times, and I don’t know if the last two years has made it worse, but it certainly hasn’t made it better. 

When I saw the title of today’s sermon was “The Scattered Church,” I immediately thought it would be about how our church is disorganized and unfocused (which we, as all human entities, sometimes are.) It wasn’t–”scattered” was used in contrast to “gathered” and explored how we live our faith in times when we’re together as a congregation and in times when we’re out in the world. 

I usually think of “focused” as the opposite to “scattered,” but I’m intrigued by thinking about “gathered” instead of focused. And maybe I’m not looking for an opposite to scattered, but a companion idea. Maybe being scattered isn’t always a negative. 

Scattered can mean mess and chaos, but also freedom and possibility. Are there times when it’s good to have a myriad of thoughts and ideas and feelings and experiences, and throw them out to the world, especially if I can carefully collect them when needed? 

“When needed”–that may be the key. If I could, I’d add that to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (and the song “Turn, Turn, Turn,”): For everything there is a season,…a time to scatter (and be scattered) and a time to gather (and be gathered). 

So I think I’ll try to be a little more open to being scattered, and see where it leads me. I’ll try to be more intentional about what I gather, too.

EXCEPT when it comes to cheese. I need to get my cheese protocols in order. Wasting cheese is a sin (I’m from Wisconsin, after all).