Overwhelmed? Just Breathe.

​Dear Members and Friends of St. Paul Lutheran Church,

It's important that we address the elephant in the room. The pandemic has changed us - as individuals, as families, as congregations.

We have all been affected and are recovering from a common, shared trauma - the pandemic. The events we've walked through over the past eighteen months have caused many to question their livelihoods, their safety, their relationships, and what is or isn't important in their lives anymore. Those are deep, thought-provoking questions that I said in my sermon last week, are the kind of questions all should feel safe to ask at church.

Some of you have brought such questions to me and we try to find answers together. I'm grateful for these opportunities. Because if the church isn't offering some kind of answers to our deep pandemic-related questions of faith and life we really need to begin doing so.

An article I recently read refers to what we are all experiencing as "spiritual trauma" as a result of the pandemic. It challenges churches to become spiritual trauma centers. I understand this. It's important that you can come to me and to your church to find healing for the wounds the pandemic has opened in your life.

I've decided to speak more often about this "elephant in the room" and acknowledge the affects it's had on our lives and on the life of our congregation, and I encourage you to do the same. I've decided this because all too often you and I become overwhelmed with the current ways of the world when instead we need to focus on the overwhelming love, grace, and power of God and our need to just breathe.

Below are two YouTube videos. I encourage you take about eight minutes of your time to watch and listen to as a way of focusing on God and breathing in his Holy Spirit. Let's start here.

Please reach out to me if you would like to talk about how the pandemic has impacted your life, the life of your family, or the life of our church.

See you in Church!

Pastor Dale