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,...
by gardenspres | Sep 17, 2018
As residents of South Florida we know the anxiety, chaos, fear, and destruction that hurricanes can unleash upon communities. We lift up to God those in the Carolinas suffering as a result of the wind, rain, and flooding caused by Hurricane Florence. With the...
