Inside a COVID Patient’s Room

On the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of South Carolina website this week, I shared some reflections on being a chaplain in these days of pandemic.

“She [the nurse] might be able to hold the patient’s hand, through gloves, as [the patient] died, but the family could not. I waited outside the room with the husband, offering what comfort I could, and hearing him do his best to comfort his children through FaceTime. I felt perhaps more helpless than I ever had in my twelve years as a staff chaplain at MUSC Medical Center. This was my first experience of a COVID-19 death. There would be others in the months that followed, and none of us knows what the months ahead will bring.”

You can read the whole article here.

Faith in the Time of COVID-19

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?” Well, where do I begin?! I heard these words from Psalm 42 during our church’s worship service this morning, which I watched via Facebook Live just like the rest of the congregation. Our new pastor, the one we just installed last Sunday, came together with the rest of the church staff and made the difficult decision to cancel any activities at the church until further notice. Anything that brings groups of people physically together right now, especially when a lot of those people are in high risk categories, is anathema. Every day the numbers of those infected by the novel coronavirus and those who have died keep rising. So yes, there are plenty of reasons our souls might be disquieted within us in these strange days. Continue reading “Faith in the Time of COVID-19”