The thoughts today are primarily for extroverts, and you know who you are. Introverts can read and refer this to your spouse. Introverts are secretly enjoying this quarantine deal. They prefer to stay at home and read a book anyway. Extroverts, however, are struggling. Staying put is difficult, almost like being in prison.

Speaking of being in prison, by far the Bible character with the strongest extrovert personality was the Apostle Paul. If ever there was a man who couldn’t sit still it was Paul. He had to constantly be on the move from one place to another and when he was in a given town for a few days or week he had to continually be out and about telling people about Jesus or teaching Christians, sometimes in all day teaching session. For Paul, being quarantined would have been like being in prison. Which is exactly where he was on several occasions. 

Paul’s longest quarantine/imprisonment was in Rome. He may have been in prison there for 2-3 years, which makes our current quarantine seem pretty short but that would only be the opinion of an introvert. Historians think he was probably under house arrest and not in a real Roman prison, like that is supposed to make extroverts feel better.

Being an extrovert meant he could not be content to just sit at home and read (I doubt the house he was in could really have been called a home). Paul had to do something, so he decided to write letters. Actually, he wrote a number of letters that we refer to today as his prison epistles. They include Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. 

So, what was the attitude of Paul the extrovert when he was quarantined to a house in Rome? Maybe his letter to the church in Philippi gives us a hint concerning that. In 1:18 he wrote about others preaching Jesus when he could not, and he wrote, “Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.” In 2:18 he wrote, “So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.” To make that very clear he wrote in 3:1, Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! Finally, this extrovert quarantined to a house for 2 plus years wrote in 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (If you want to look it up Paul used the word “rejoice” 2 additional times and the word “joy” 5 times in his letter to the Philippians.) Beginning to look like there is a pattern here!

Hey fellow extroverts, how are you handling this quarantine thing? I wonder if maybe we should try rejoicing like Paul did. After all, our homes are not like Paul’s prison home and we have at least some family with us. I also suspect our food is better.

Praise items:

1. We had another good Zoom service on Sunday.

Prayer items: 

1. Let’s continue to remember Ashley as she grieves the death of a friend who went through basic with her.
2. Let’s remember EMS and all First Responders
3. Let’s remember those of our church family who have loved ones in nursing and retirement homes and cannot visit them.

Don’t forget to send your tithes and offering to Deb. R. Thanks