by gardenspres | Jan 14, 2019
When people speak to lightly of suffering or even praise the merits of suffering too highly, I immediately begin to mistrust them or to question whether they have actually truly suffered. Suffering is devastating. To suffer is to experience such excruciating...
by gardenspres | Jan 9, 2019
Reflecting on the spiritual journey of which every human being embarks (or ignores) Richard Rohr says the following: “As I see it, the human task is threefold. First the human spirit must connect to the Eternal by turning toward God’s immanence and ineffability with...
by gardenspres | Jan 5, 2019
Last week in worship we did something different. You all helped me preach! You helped me proclaim the Gospel. Together we read Isaiah 40:31, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be...
by gardenspres | Dec 31, 2018
Lately I have been reading a lot of Thomas Merton. Merton describes the experience of God’s presence paradoxically as the experience of God’s absence. I have to admit that while something about this description rings true for me, as if it gives words to my own...
by gardenspres | Oct 28, 2018
In a world of pipe bombs, anti-semitism, hateful bigotry, mass shootings, desperate refugees, hateful political rhetoric, and unhelpful deepening tribalism it requires great faith to believe that the Spirit of God is at work healing, transforming, redeeming,...
