Have you ever heard a person referred to as a “saint”? Perhaps you have said your mother was a saint. Maybe you had a teacher in school you would classify as a saint. To hear the way people use that word we could easily conclude that a saint is a person who is kinder than everybody else, or more courageous, or more dedicated, or smarter than the average Joe. In other words, a saint is a person most of us will never be. We just can’t measure up to the standard. But is any of that true? Is the world made up of mediocre humans with a few rare individuals that just make the rest of us look bad? Join us in The Soul’s Garage as we look for saints in unlikely places.

As Halloween approaches, our society focuses on the things that terrify us. Children tend to be scared by witches, ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night, but our fears change over time. As adults, our nightmares lean more toward work, family, and other personal trepidations—not to mention the specific worries bedeviling us every time we watch the daily news. Does Halloween raise any relevant spiritual questions about the dragons we encounter in our lives, or is it just a good excuse for gorging on the leftover candy we bought for the Trick or Treaters? Join us in The Soul’s Garage, and let’s find out.

We probably would not get much disagreement when we say that all of us are living now in a time of fear. Our nation, and our world, are deeply polarized. There are serious economic concerns, growing authoritarianism, and brutal wars around the globe. Every poll indicates a deep fear gripping people everywhere. So what is to be done? We contend that what we do with fear is pivotal, and how we define hope is pivotal too. Is hope just wishful thinking—“I hope so”—or something deeper? Join us in the garage as we discuss finding hope in times like these.