Cabin Fever

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” ~Psalm 122:1

Cabin fever. You know what it is. That feeling of the walls closing in after too many days stuck in the home. In some areas of the country this is a normal part of November through March. Here in the South, it’s a rare occurrence—at least due to the weather. However, many of us have experienced it this past week. Snow and ice (and more on the way!) have kept a lot of us, our friends, and our family homebound. Cabin fever begins to set in. 

I don’t know about you, but for me the worst part of it is missing corporate worship! Being homebound from Monday through Saturday is tolerable if only I know that gathered worship is coming on the Lord’s Day. That sense of joy the Christian feels when they hear the piano playing the prelude, receive the smiles and warm greetings of brothers and sisters in Christ, experience the Word of God read and preached and seen in the sacraments. Being in God’s house is so beneficial to the believer. If I had to be stuck in some “cabin,” let it be in God’s house!

One of the blessings that came from the Covid years is that the homebound now have access to their local church’s worship services. We livestream our services, and I, for one, am thankful that many of our elderly and sick, as well as those otherwise providentially hindered from gathering, are afforded the joy of the next best thing to corporate worship. What a blessing to live in an age that affords us such technological advancements as livestreamed worship on platforms like YouTube. 

But I would be remiss if I didn’t remind us all that “online worship” is not corporate worship. Corporate worship necessitates gathered-ness. The word corporate comes from the Latin meaning “body” or “form into a body.” The apostle Paul uses this language throughout his New Testament letters. In 1 Corinthians 12, for example, he refers to the church as a body. The author of Hebrews picks up on this in Hebrews 10:24-25, where he admonishes us to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Encouragement happens when we are together. Stirring up one another to love and good works is, by God’s design, a part of the corporate gathering for worship. 

My encouragement to you during this season of cabin fever is to not grow comfortable with the notion of missing the corporate aspect of worship for the convenience of an online option. Rather, ask the Lord to heighten your sense of longing to go to the house of the Lord, to be with the people of the Lord, and to sing the praises of the Lord with your voice joined together with the brethren. Online worship is a unique blessing from God in times of special circumstances and divine providence, but His intention for His people is that we come together for growth, fellowship, and participation in the ordinary means of grace. 

Cabin fever. It can make you stir crazy in your own home. But it can also make you long more after God’s house, where Christ has promised to be present with His gathered people.

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor