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Posts Categorized: Spiritual formation
April 7, 2017
Facing Retirement Wrestling With The Ghost of Samuel By Ken Rummer I’ve had trouble envisioning my life in retirement, and I suspect a ghost is involved, the ghost of Samuel. Years ago, when I told my parents about my decision to go… Read more »
March 8, 2017
God’s grace Do we grab it or wait for it? By N. Graham Standish How God’s grace works is always a paradox. It’s a gift freely given that we have to go and get. And it’s a gift that we often have to sit and wait for. We have to passionately strive for it and… Read more »
December 14, 2016
Rediscovering holy wholeness Material miracles and spiritual malignancy By N. Graham Standish Modern people are a compartmentalized people, which makes them efficient, expedient, and effective. But it also eviscerates their spirit by carving the world into secular and sacred compartments. Spiritual people are integrated people who consecrate the sacred in all of life, recognizing everything… Read more »
November 11, 2016
Spinning out of control Is it life or is it me? By N. Graham Standish Our increasing access to excess spins us off of our axis, which makes it extremely difficult to have success in spiritual interests. Years ago I was struck by something the Quaker spiritual writer Thomas Kelly said in response to his… Read more »
July 13, 2016
Grounded When suffering leads to hope By Graham Standish To truly be grounded in God, we often have to be ground down. It’s not that God wants to humiliate us. It’s that to truly be available to God we have to have humility, and the grinding down of life can cultivate us to become good… Read more »
June 14, 2016
Can we talk? Let’s be inspired by love by Abby King-Kaiser It can take a great deal of bravery to go out—I mean really go out… late night, joyful, surrendering of self to community, surrendering of body to music, surrendering of despair to joy—as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in a society that is still… Read more »
June 8, 2016
Do you have faith or belief? by N. Graham Standish Faith is like a knife: use it sparingly and it becomes little more than a dull trinket kept in a drawer, or a ceremonial trophy to be hung on a wall. But when it is sharpened and used in everyday life, it can cut through… Read more »
January 25, 2016
Seeking transformation through the renewal of our minds ‘We’ve always done it that way’An ode to ruling elders and what’s really going on when a church member resists change by Jeffrey A. Schooley As a relatively new pastor, I’ve heard the phrase “We’ve always done it that way” enough times to drown in it. No… Read more »