When imposed becomes tiresome, we tend towards rebellion.
I think it is just a way to react when our expectations of a quick resolve to a problem are dashed. The conundrum of COVID has been the quickly changing goal posts. When our vision for the future is no more than a day at a time, most of us have not been trained in the etiquette of daily reorientation.
Our go-to is to look around the limitations and find the loop hole. What has been called living by the “letter” of the law and not the “spirit” of the law. OR . . . we just decide the law is wrong and we disregard the limitations and the consequences. We want to get to our goals and no external force is going to stop us!
Except it did. At least for the majority of us in small churches. For all the marvelous plans we have or had, we are now in a new state of planning. Whereas we used to figure on a stable environment, now we figure on instability to be the new norm. Our plans are always contingent. We used to plan with surety.
Exiting COVID restrictions does not mean exiting a planning environment. We will still plan.
The question is – what approach to the future will we pivot on – contingency or surety?