Jeff Fox-Kline's Weekly Blog

 As I have mentioned on this blog before, I have a thumb. This is to say it's not green, but it's not a death touch to plants. We have a small garden plot and we're pumping out patty pan squash like nobody's business. We've got tomatoes making themselves known, and an occasional zucchini that comes from a big plant with little to show for it. We've got kale that's mostly serving as food for bugs, and peppers that are well shaded by the zucchini and squash plants. patty pan: one word, or two? One of the joys that I'm finding with my garden versus purchasing from a store is that my veggies look way cooler. My squashes have striation, as do the zucchini. My tomatoes are all different varieties that each look cool and different in their own ways.  When I buy a zucchini it's green. And that's it. But the one's we grow are exciting and different. When I eat them I feel like a high roller, living with that gooooooood veggie. Just look at these dumb,

There is no more beautiful or comforting image in the entirety of scripture than the one provided to us by the author of Hebrews: 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 12:2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.  The great cloud of witnesses is one of the reasons why I'm still committed to this often-haggard institution of Church.  It's present in our baptisms, it's present at communion, it's present when we grieve after losing someone, it's present when we witness wedding vows, it's present when we strive to greatness, it's present when we fail to be our best selves. When we proclaim the life eternal we are recogniz

 Part of the job of pastoring is to be with people in the worst moments of their lives. You are invited to hospitals, crises, family conflict, funerals, and the general day to day of the difficult times. It's a tremendous honor.  It is a beautiful thing, though often can be an exhausting experience. And no one experience is like another. No hospitalization is the same as any other hospitalization. Memorial services may have some overlap, but never do they repeat. It's always an experience wherein you need to go in knowing that you don't know what's going on.  Or what to say. And that can be scary. It can be intimidating to hear someone talk about their impending death and then they look to you like you're supposed to make sense of it all (which, to be fair, is an [impossible] part of the job).  I've been reading  A Wrinkle In Time  for the first time in my life (shame on me). One of the characters, Mrs. Who, speaks largely in quotations, an affectation that init