{"id":22,"date":"2014-06-28T04:43:34","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T04:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=22"},"modified":"2014-08-11T20:39:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T20:39:33","slug":"enchanted-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/enchanted-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Enchanted Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was March 1st, 1997.\u00a0 I had just said, \u201cI do!\u201d to Naomi, who was now my wife.\u00a0 It was an amazing day filled with family, loved ones and great friends.\u00a0 Just as special, was our next day walking to our terminal at the airport.\u00a0 See, being the hopeless romantic I decided to surprise my wife with a special honeymoon in the Caribbean, particularly Ocho Rios, Jamaica<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not until we walked up to our gate did she know where we were heading.\u00a0 As we sat, Naomi was out of her mind excited after having just learned where we were spending the next seven days.\u00a0 Then the call came, \u201cIt is now time for first class to board!\u201d\u00a0 I jumped out of my seat and said, \u201cThat\u2019s us.\u201d\u00a0 Naomi said, \u201cYeah right.\u201d\u00a0 No, seriously, I booked first class tickets.\u00a0 If she wasn\u2019t already hooked, which she was, she had to be after this moment.\u00a0 Once on the plane I pulled out brochures to show her our destination, the Enchanted Gardens.\u00a0 Enchanted Gardens was a five star all inclusive resort located in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.\u00a0 The resort boasted of having more than 20 natural waterfalls<\/strong> on their property and was considered one of the top paradise destinations in the Caribbean.\u00a0 It was amazing!\u00a0 Not long after arriving to the resort, a host gave Naomi and I a basic tour of the property.\u00a0 After having seen our third set of waterfalls, Naomi looked at me and said, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what God can make.\u201d\u00a0 No sooner did she\u00a0 finish her statement, when the host blurted out, \u201cWho needs god, when you have all of this?\u201d\u00a0 Below is a picture of one of the pools we enjoyed during our stay at the Enchanted Gardens.<\/p>\n

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This past week while reading Culture and the Death of God by Terry Eagleton I was struck by how the enlightenment\u2019s assault on religion, then, was at root a political rather than theological affair.\u00a0 More importantly, the goal of the enlightenment was to oust a barbarian faith for a more civilized one.\u00a0 In the end, civilized became the norm by which people lived, breathed and even pursued their faith.\u00a0 Civilized!\u00a0 The following are three key insights which emerged in regards to the civilized and their need for God.<\/p>\n

Who needs god, when you have all of this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Super becomes natural\u2026<\/strong>\u00a0 In a world where the super becomes the natural, a subtle yet distinct loss occurs in our need for the super natural or God.\u00a0 When all is civilized, who needs God?\u00a0 Though the natural world is powerful while reflecting it\u2019s creator, it does not replace God.\u00a0 Yet, for all of us, it\u2019s quite easy to depend on the natural rather than the super.\u00a0 Subtly we begin to trust in the church program to change people, rather than God.\u00a0 Subtly we begin to believe our curriculum is irreplaceable, and that God could not work without it!\u00a0 You get where I\u2019m going.<\/p>\n

Luxury becomes comfort\u2026<\/strong> That first day in Ocho Rios was amazing.\u00a0 We climbed Dunn\u2019s River Falls, kayaked in the Caribbean and snorkeled on a coral reef.\u00a0 As a 24 year old, having traveled very little at this point, I was blown away.\u00a0 18 years later, having traveled many places around the world, I no longer see the same luxury.\u00a0 If I\u2019m honest, what was then luxury is now simply comfort.\u00a0 For most humans, the more we experience, a subtle numbing takes place which causes us to no longer see great gifts from God as luxury, but rather comfort necessities.<\/p>\n

The Gardener is no longer needed\u2026\u00a0 <\/strong>When God is no longer needed, the gardener is told to go away.\u00a0 From our souls.\u00a0 From our marriages.\u00a0 From our relationships.\u00a0 From our ministries.\u00a0 When the super becomes natural and luxury becomes comfort, there is ultimately no longer a need for God.\u00a0 In this silent admonition we shout to God , I\u2019m good, I can take care of my own soul, as well as my relationship with others.\u00a0 In this moment the Gardner is sent away.<\/p>\n

A few months ago, Naomi and I were reminiscing about our honeymoon and the Enchanted Gardens.\u00a0 After a quick Google search, I learned that during the financial collapse of 2008, the Enchanted Gardens fell into bankruptcy and has sat ownerless since that time.\u00a0 Below is a current picture of the same pool from above which Naomi and I enjoyed on our honeymoon.\u00a0 The gardener went away!<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Remember, who needs god, when you have all of this?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was March 1st, 1997.\u00a0 I had just said, \u201cI do!\u201d to Naomi, who was now my wife.\u00a0 It was an amazing day filled with family, loved ones and great friends.\u00a0 Just as special, was our next day walking to our terminal at the airport.\u00a0 See, being the hopeless romantic I decided to surprise my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,17],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-eagleton","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1336,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/1336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}