As I snuggled with one of my kids this week, they asked me who I was voting for in the election and why. As I gave my answer, I realized that much of what sways me as a voter is the character of the leader. I can disagree with people on policy, but if they are a leader who cares about people, I can still follow.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus heals people and in doing so restores them to community. They are no longer cast out because of disease or mental illness. They can be brought back into the community and can be cared for. I wonder what would happen if we elected more leaders who acted that way?

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Life feels overwhelming. Hurricanes Helene and Milton; West Coast Wildfires; Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine; an election cycle; climate change; gun violence; and the list goes on. I was late getting this episode posted because of feeling overwhelmed with family and with career and with all the things.

Kate Bowler, New York Times best selling author co wrote a devotional book and in one devotion she talks about the cost of caring. It costs part of our soul to care for others. To have empathy and compassion means we give a bit of ourselves away. A price but certainly worth the cost.

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Many Bible texts have been used against the LGBTQ+ community and against women. The creation account in Genesis 2 certainly has. But what if it has some different understandings than the way it has been used to subjugate people? What if we look at the Hebrew and seek the fuller understanding of some of the words that we have perhaps mistranslated into English? We find a story where God is acting and where God does not want humans to be alone, but to have a helper as God is our helper.

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