Dcn Leah Sandwell-Weiss

Dear friends,

[The faithful] are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither. … Psalm 1:3

The image in the verse from today’s lectionary readings has always resonated with me—even before I lived in a desert. I could see trees in the country, especially in Texas, trees planted by creeks where they could grow tall and strong. The Psalmist is referring to people who study the Torah and meditate on it their whole lives. But I have found a lot of us, including me, have taken a break from our faith at some point in our lives. 

Recently, I read a piece on NPR by Rachel Martin, who is doing a series of stories discussing what it takes to build a life of meaning and the role of faith. In this piece, she interviewed Sarah Horwitz about re-connecting with her faith as an adult, https://www.npr.org/2023/07/02/1184875650/faith-religion-judaism-sarah-hurwitz. Sarah has a new book out, “Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life—in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There).”

Raised in a Jewish family, she left Judaism as a teen, until after a successful career as a speechwriter for President and Mrs. Obama, she attended an intro to Judaism class. I won’t summarize the rest of her story; I recommend you take a few minutes to read it. She does make the point that in many faith traditions, we stop learning about our faith when we finish church school, as she did. Going back as an adult, she found all the meaning she didn’t know about as a young person. She also noted that picking and choosing from different faith traditions “reinforces our self-existing beliefs.” That’s not “the purpose of these great spiritual traditions. The purpose is to learn that you are infinitely worthy and also you sometimes do things that are unkind or that are cruel or insensitive or impatient and you need to be lovingly and gently invited to do better.”

I stopped attending services in my original faith tradition when I couldn’t find anything that fed my need to learn more about theology, the development of faith, or church history. I stopped growing because I couldn’t reach the water I needed. I don’t think I’m unique. I returned to a different form of Christianity in the Episcopal Church and found water that’s allowed me to deepen my roots and grow my faith. May that lead you, too.

—Dcn Leah