{"id":6084,"date":"2010-07-29T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T17:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/?p=6084"},"modified":"2010-07-29T15:32:24","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T20:32:24","slug":"spaces-of-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/spaces-of-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaces of grace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Waterfall<\/a>
Waterfall @ the Dallas Arboretum | Photo by Jonathan Blundell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where is it that you find grace?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where is it that you find sanctuary?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have a safe place where you can unwind? Ask questions? Express doubt?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If so, what does that space look like for you?<\/strong>
\n
\nFrom St. Peter’s Brewery<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As the last of the crowds dispersed, Pete sent his part-time help home for the evening and finally made his way over to Jimmy to say hello.<\/p>\n

\u201cPete! I want you to meet my friend Eddie. He works over at the post office with me,\u201d Jimmy said as Pete approached.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood to meet you Eddie,\u201d Pete said with an out stretched hand. \u201cHope you\u2019ve been taken good care of tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a good time,\u201d Eddie responded. \u201cI imagine I\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEddie\u2019s lived in this town his entire life and never once stepped foot in this building since you bought it and now he\u2019s ready to become a regular customer,\u201d Jimmy laughed. \u201cI guess you\u2019re doing something right around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he\u2019s right,\u201d Eddie added. \u201cI guess I felt better about enjoying a beer at home. Didn\u2019t want God to find out I was sneaking around and drinking in his house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know, rumor has it that Jesus made some of the finest wine in the land,\u201d Pete said, surprising both Jimmy and Eddie. \u201cAnd most historians will tell you that Martin Luther and other theologians usually discussed the roots of their theology over a good beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was starting to become obvious that Pete had a passion for his pub and combining theology with good beer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, it was Catholic monks who invented beer in the first place,\u201d Pete continued. \u201cSo I figured I was in good company if I was going to get in the beer making business.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Jimmy and Pete continued talking, Eddie stood from his stool and began to walk around the room. He hadn\u2019t noticed earlier but Pete had framed quotes from theologians and others on the qualities of good faith and good beer throughout the large room.<\/p>\n

One quote near the front door caught his eye.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Whenever the devil pesters you, at once seek out the company of friends, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some form of merriment.\u2019 – Martin Luther\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBoy ain\u2019t that the truth,\u201d Eddie said as he pointed to the quote.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s one of my favorite quotes too,\u201d Pete replied.<\/p>\n

Eddie continued walking around the room, reading various quotes.<\/p>\n

As he read the other quotes around the room, Pete continued, \u201cPart of the reason I started this place where I did was because for years I\u2019ve had a passion for brewing beer and one of my favorite songs we sang in the church I grew up in was \u2018Just as I Am.\u2019 As I got older, I started feeling like several churches I visited were singing that song, but never really meaning it. Yet I could walk into a bar or a brewery and feel safe, welcomed, loved, accepted. They might not have known me from Adam, but they accepted me just as I was. It was as if when Nirvana sang \u2018Come as You Are\u2019 they actually meant it, but the folks in the church didn\u2019t really love and accept everyone just as they were. Figured there had to be a way to combine those ideas \u2014 so when this property became available I saw a vision of all those ideas merging together. I\u2019m hoping this place finally becomes a real sanctuary for all.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

—<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in reading the rest of St. Peter’s Brewery<\/a>, I’m giving away a FREE PDF copy of the full book to anyone who donates to my charity:water campaign<\/a> between now and Aug. 31, 2010. Simply make a donation of any size and I’ll e-mail you a copy of the book.<\/em><\/p>\n

Donate now<\/a><\/h2>\n

Help us provide clean drinking water to the 1 billion people around the world who are without<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where is it that you find grace? Where is it that you find sanctuary? Do you have a safe place where you can unwind? Ask questions? Express doubt? If so, what does that space look like for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,17],"tags":[2144,301,4656,3695,3693,3694,1607],"class_list":["post-6084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-club","category-take-action","tag-charitywater","tag-donate","tag-free","tag-sample","tag-sanctuary","tag-spaces-of-grace","tag-st-peters-brewery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-1A8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}