In the Garden of Spirituality – Gregory L. Jantz

“We are not on earth to guard a museum,
but to cultivate a flowering garden of life.”

– Pope John XXIII

The Wild Reed’s series of reflections on religion and spirituality continues with excerpts from Gregory L. Jantz’s Soul Care, a book of prayers, scriptures, and spiritual practices for “when you need hope the most.”

The excerpts I share this evening focus on two major spiritual practices identified and explored by Jantz: prayer and gratitude.

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Perhaps the most important spiritual discipline to adopt in your daily life is prayer. Now, when I write "pray," I don’t mean muttering a stream of rote, repetitious phrases you heard in church a long time ago. I’m talking about regular, heartfelt conversations with the one who created you, who loves you, and who desperately wants you to know him[/her/them] as intimately as he[/she/they] knows you.

So what should you talk about? Everything! There is no problem too big or too small to go to God with for help. . . . Ask God for wisdom and guidance. Ask God to give you the courage and strength to get through the tough times. But don’t stop there. Tell God about all the wonderful things that are happening in your life as well. Thank God for the daily blessings of family and friends. Share your accomplishments, your dreams, and your goals for the future. Talk to God about every aspect of your life, good and bad. It’s so easy to get mired in negativity. Regularly scheduled prayer time provides a wonderful opportunity to reflect on and express gratitude for everything that is going right in our lives.

If you’re not used to talking with God or you aren’t sure how or where to start, try writing God a letter or pairing your prayer time with another activity like going for a walk. Whatever you do, don’t overthink it! God isn’t concerned with eloquence or fancy language. God just wants to hear from you. So be yourself. Before you know it, you’ll be looking forward to your daily quiet time with God. You may even start talking with God throughout your day! Nothing soothes the soul and quiets the mind like quality time spent in the company of a dear and trusted friend. So get into the habit of giving yourself a daily dose of hope. God would love to hear from you!

. . . Why should we make a habit of regularly experiencing and expressing gratitude? Because simply put, gratitude fosters optimism, and optimism fuels hope. And hope is what gives us the strength to keep moving forward on even our darkest days. That’s why it’s hard to imagine more effective soul medicine than gratitude – it’s impossible to feel grateful and hopeless at the same time!

Granted, sometimes when we’re really struggling, gratitude can be hard to muster. So start with the small things. Anyone can come up with those – and the more whimsical, the better. For example, I’m grateful for ice cream and for the inspired genius who invented it. I’m grateful that freshly mown grass is part of my world on summer evenings. I’m grateful for how it smells and how it feels on bare feet. I’m even grateful for rainy days, because I love the way the air smells after a storm passes. As you have your daily conversations with God, make a habit of thanking God for something that brings you joy.

The medieval Christian philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart once said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” And if you think about it, the list of things we can and should be thankful for – even in our darkest moments – is practically inexhaustible. So say thank you – out loud and with gusto – for teriyaki sauce or butterflies or kites or Mozart . . . anything that has ever made you smile. Say thank you for hot showers and soft towels. . . . For tulips poking out of the dirt in the spring and that magic moment when the lights go down in the movie theater.

The wonderful thing about gratitude is that it is a multiplier – not of the beauty and good all around us in the world (that never changes) but of our awareness of it and of the loving God responsible for it all. When dark thoughts threaten to push everything else aside, practicing purposeful gratitude to our Creator is a powerful way to push back.

– Gregory L. Jantz
Excerpted from Soul Care:
Prayers, Scriptures, and Spiritual Practices
for When You Need Hope the Most
Tyndale Momentum, 2019
pp. 3-4 and 23-25

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Giving Thanks: A Spiritual Act of Trust
• Grief and Gratitude
• A Sacred Pause
• Aligning With the Living Light
• Mystical Participation
• A Season of Listening
• Returning the Mind to God
• The Source Is Within You
• The Soul’s Beloved
• You Are My Goal, Beloved One
• Be In My Mind, Beloved One
• Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• Finding Balance in the Presence of the Beloved
• Stepping Out of Time and Resting Your Mind
• In the Stillness and Silence of This Present Moment
• The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present in the Moment
• Today I Will Be Still
• Cultivating Stillness
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• Love’s the Only Dance
• In This Time of Liminal Space

Others highlighted in The Wild Reed’s “In the Garden of Spirituality” series include:
Zainab Salbi | Daniel Helminiak | Rod Cameron | Paul Collins | Joan Chittister | Toby Johnson | Joan Timmerman (Part I) | Joan Timmerman (Part II) | Uta Ranke-Heinemann | Caroline Jones | Ron Rolheiser | James C. Howell | Paul Coelho | Doris Lessing | Michael Morwood | Kenneth Stokes | Dody Donnelly | Adrian Smith | Henri Nouwen | Diarmuid Ó Murchú | L. Patrick Carroll | Jesse Lava | Geoffrey Robinson | Joyce Rupp | Debbie Blue | Rosanne Cash | Elizabeth Johnson | Eckhart Tolle | James B. Nelson | Jeanette Blonigen Clancy | Mark Hathaway (Part I) | Mark Hathaway (Part II) | Parker Palmer | Karen Armstrong | Alan Lurie | Paul Wapner | Pamela Greenberg | Ilia Delio | Hazrat Inayat Khan | Andrew Harvey | Kabir Helminski | Beatrice Bruteau | Richard Rohr (Part I) | Richard Rohr (Part II) | Judy Cannato | Anthony de Mello | Marianne Williamson | David Richo | Gerald May | Thomas Crum | Pema Chödrön | Peng Roden Her

Opening image: Michael J. Bayly.