We need to give ourselves permission to admit that this pandemic season we are in is hard!  Considering stay at home orders, shut downs, changing rules, quarantines, vaccines, financial concerns, and health concerns… pack them all into a ten month window, and then add a fiercely divisive election year as the cherry on top! In some ways it is a miracle we are still standing at all.  Exile is to expel someone from their home and keep them from returning.  The Old Testament prophets who ministered during these difficult periods tell us one reassuring thing - even when you are not home, and desperately wish that you were, God is still speaking if you will only listen!