Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. Before I began to discern God’s call to chaplaincy in 1985, I spent my life chasing happiness. I would be happy if only I had more money, a better house, a bigger title, a different spouse (who really understood me), the recognition of my community, […]
Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. I love this saying, attributed to Saint Francis because the challenge of my life lies not what I profess as a Christian, but in what I practice. They’re usually pretty much in sync in ministry, but not so much in the little stuff of everyday […]
Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. Years ago, when I was based in New York City, I was walking along East 22nd Street one night when I noticed a homeless man standing outside a diner. His legs gave out from under him and down he went. Another man got to him […]
Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. I never know when and how God is going to bless me. Forget the big stuff (blinding lights, thunderclaps, etc.) because, like Elijah experienced, God most often comes as a “still, small voice” – and that voice often is another of God’s children (that would […]
Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. Poet Emily Dickinson wrote that “Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul,” where it sings without pause. She tells us that it sounds sweetest “in the gale” and that she’s heard it “in the chillest land and on the strangest sea.” How […]
Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. Since retiring from full-time chaplaincy in 2020, I have been blessed with opportunities to continue that ministry in varying situations. One of the most meaningful has been to work with men transitioning from prison life to civilian life. It has shown me how God can […]
Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. It is easy to be the object of love. But who is it I’m supposed to love? The answer is that we don’t set the definitions: Jesus does. “Love thy neighbor.” And Jesus defines a neighbor as anyone we meet. Anyone? How many of those awful people around me […]
Today’s message was written by Guest Pastor, Chaplin Bob Griffiths. We read in the Bible of the many ways that the Holy Spirit operated through history from the beginning: “And the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” Then, later, the Spirit came to the prophets and then, in the New Testament, to Zechariah and […]
In my fifteen years of hospice and nursing home ministry, I heard some wonderfully moving comments and questions from people with dementia. Joan W., for instance, near the end of her life: “Why do I love Jesus so much?” Elizabeth N., as December began in 2007: “When Jesus comes, will he walk with me in […]
The two richest periods of spiritual development in Christian history were the periods of eremitic movements – eremitic, from which we get the word hermit. The first was the time of the desert fathers and mothers – the desert spirituality of 200-400. The second was the eremitical movements of roughly 1000-1300, which brought us religious […]
