One of the ways my wife Rebekah is dealing with the current lack of mobility, and the frustrating fact of being grounded from church, is to communicate a lot more by email. (And, yes, I’m not alone in believing she’d be one amazing blogger if she went that route – even if just a couple of times a week.)

So this morning I’m posting a “guest blogger” spot from Rebekah, using the letter she sent to our congregation Monday morning. She addresses the idea of generosity in the context of “what can we do to make a difference?” in this broken, dark, fragmented, negatively focused world….

This may be have been written for members of WFPC, but it is a good word for this country, and for this world. I’ll post my own election day thoughts probably in the afternoon – DEREK

Dear fine church family,      I’m really bummed about missing Commitment Sunday this coming weekend. There is something powerful about bringing our offering to place it on the communion table… The Table of our Lord is one of the most powerful symbols of our faith and love for Christ. I am prayerfully telling God that I’m willing to support his ways in the world through the mission and ministry of WFPC.      There’s another reason I love Commitment Sunday. I was in conversation with one of our members recently, who was truly sad… truly fearful… about the state of our world, the discouragement about the election processes, the sense that darkness wins. “What difference does it make what I do as a Christian?”      Whenever someone speaks of the darkness of this world, I have to smile… because the opening verses in John’s Gospel (Jn.1:1-5) have been written on my heart… “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” Another translation says, “… and the darkness has not understood it.”      Isn’t that the truth… But the light of God… Jesus… continues to shine through the likes of us. We are the children of light. When I give my deliberate and prayerful financial support to the work of Wake Forest Presbyterian, I am telling the world that things are not as dark as they appear. We are the children of God. We have the opportunity to help a discouraged world recognize and understand that we are not alone, and nothing in all creation can separate us from such love… such power… ever.      The avenue through which I can participate in bringing such light and hope into the world is through support of our church family through committing my tithe as part of the solution to pushing the darkness back, and allowing His love to shine more deliberately through what we do as a church. What we do as a church makes a huge difference.      We vote as children of Light [November 8] when we go to the polls. We advocate for the Light of God when we come to the Table on Sunday with our pledge cards, and with hope in our hearts. I will be with you in Spirit on Sunday when Derek brings our pledge card to the Table… and we at WFPC will continue to live into hope.      Much love, hope, peace and joy of Christ Jesus,      Rebekah