"Faith"fully Yours

 This is a blog post I offered to God's Word, Many Voices and thought I would share it here as well. Sue Monk Kidd, in her book Dance of the Dissident Daughter asks the question:   After you wake up, can you wake up anymore?”   I thought of that quote as I prayed with St. Paul’s message to the Thessalonians both last week and this one.   “Stay alert and sober” he admonishes.   I don’t know about you, but too many days during this time of COVID-19 and the build up to the elections, I have wanted to do just the opposite, pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep.   And yet sleep has often been illusive as I have tossed and turned, imagined and feared, hoped and dreaded.   So what might Paul be saying to me in this time and place of November 2020?   What is the call? I turn to the Gospel for today.   It is the familiar story of the distribution of talents and the servants who use and multiply their talents and the servant, who out of fear of retribution, buries the talen

  It is Election Day and somehow it feels safe for me to once again take up my keyboard and jot some musings.   I have found these past months with the political drama, the civil unrest and COVID-19, that I am exhausted.   How about you?   I try to focus on my work and friends and family, but everything I do is colored by these realities.   I cannot plan to see my friends or family without figuring out how to do it safely.   I have become adept with the technologies of FaceTime, ZOOM and kids messenger.   Reimagining how do to everything takes so much energy.   At Bethany House we talk of how “open” can we get the shelter and food pantry and keep the guests and volunteers safe.   At Church, I cannot bring communion to those who really have a desire to receive because I am afraid I might bring them more than the Eucharist.   With friends, we negotiate any type of gathering with questions like “how comfortable are you with …” or should we just ZOOM?   The political drama playing itse