The Temptation to Hoard

As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say: "There's not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency," or "There's not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I'd better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it" or "There's not enough love to give to everybody, so I'd better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me." This is a scarcity mentality. It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won't have enough to survive. The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.

- Henri Nouwen

For the Second Sunday of Advent

It is Advent again. We call this time Advent because it reminds us of what comes from God for the creation of his kingdom on earth. There are many today who sigh to heaven, “Saviour, come now!” But they are not sighing for the sake of God’s kingdom. They cry out like this only when they are in trouble and want God to help them. And they don’t know of any help that is more effective than to have a Saviour come and put a quick end to their troubles.
When it comes to the things of God, however, we must not be concerned for what is ours, but only for what belongs to Christ. We should do this not merely for our own edification; we must become workers for God. This leads us to God’s vineyard, a place where there is not a great deal of talk, but where everyone is intent on deeds.

- C. F. Blumhardt

Cultural Strength

Like an effective sports coach it is essential to get to know both the strengths and the weaknesses of each culture and to position them accordingly. This idea is hinted at in a poster found in Switzerland that declares:

HEAVEN is
a French chef,
a German engineer,
an Italian lover
and everything organized by the Swiss.

HELL is
an English chef,
a German police officer,
a French engineer,
a Swiss lover
and everything organized by an Italian.

Cultural appreciation is also vital in matters of faith. Highlighting the various forms of Christian expression someone said:
The English love the Gospel because it gives them something to talk about.
The Welsh love the Gospel because it gives them something to sing about.
The Irish love the Gospel because it gives them something to fight about.
The Scots love the Gospel because it gives them something for nothing!
Affirming our language and appreciating our unique cultural gifts is one of the first steps in building a community.

source unknown

Prayer Presence

We often have a kind of notion, as part of this highfalutin, noble picture of ourselves as pray-ers, that when we pray we need to be completely attentive and we need to be fully engaged and we need to be concentrating and we need to be focused. But the fact is, if prayer is our end of a relationship with God, that's not the way we are with the people we love a large portion of the time. We simply are in their presence. We're going about our lives at the same time in each other's presence, aware and sustained by each other, but not much more than that. However we are, however we think we ought to be in prayer, the fact is we just need to show up and do the best we can do. It's like being in a family.

- Roberta Bondi

Whose Advent?

Though Advent (literally "arrival") has been observed for centuries as a time to contemplate Christ's birth, most people today acknowledge it only with a blank look. For the vast majority of us, December flies by in a flurry of activities, and what is called "the holiday season" turns out to be the most stressful time of the year.
It is also a time of contrasting emotions. We are eager, yet frazzled; sentimental, yet indifferent. One minute we glow at the thought of getting together with our family and friends; the next we feel utterly lonely. Our hope is mingled with dread, our anticipation with despair. We sense the deeper meanings of the season but grasp at them in vain; and in the end, all the bustle leaves us frustrated and drained.

Charles Moore

It's Crunch Time

[Jesus said] "But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out." (Luke 13:27-28)
Hockey fans have great hopes for their favourite teams in the. NHL playoffs. Players are quoted repeating all-too-common cliches and everyone speaks of "crunch time" and "it's do or die". Everyone is filled with excitement and anticipation.
When Jesus died on the cross it was like the playoffs for the salvation of mankind. The difference was that the team which at first glance appeared to lose, actually won! Talk about a reversal of decision after the instant replay! Unfortunately, we have a world of cynics who feel that since they did not actually view the instant replay themselves - it must not have happened! Sounds like a philosophy class doesn't it?
Who among us, knowing that they could take part in a huge win and accept the ultimate prize, wouldn't want to be part of God's team? With that amazing team leader known as Jesus Christ? Wouldn't you want to be part of a world championship team?
Unfortunately, we have people all around the world who don't know that in the spiritual world, it's crunch time. It is time to "do" that decision and accept Christ as their personal saviour and accept eternal life with Christ. . . either that or suffer the consequence of not having this experience. To not be with Christ will cause these people to "weep and gnash their teeth" because they were not on the winning team, . . . as they quote cliches such as "If only," "I would've, could've, should've".
And that, my friends, will be hell.

- rj van rootselaar

The Mosaic That Shows Us the Face of God

A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.
That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: "I make God visible." But others who see us together can say: "They make God visible." Community is where humility and glory touch.

- Henri Nouwen

So That We May Awaken

There is perhaps nothing we modern people need more than to be genuinely shaken up. Where life is firm we need to sense its firmness; and where it is unstable and uncertain and has no basis, no foundation, we need to know this too and endure it. We need to recognize that we have stood on this earth in false pathos, in false security, in spiritual insanity.
For this is the message of Advent: faced with him who is the Last, the world will begin to shake. Only when we do not cling to false securities will our eyes be able to see this Last One and get to the bottom of things. Only then will we be able to guard our life from the frights and terrors into which God the Lord has let the world sink to teach us, so that we may awaken from sleep, as Paul says, and see that it is time to repent, time to change things.

- Alfred Delp "Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas"

On the Journey Towards Accepting my Fears

As a college junior, I am at a critical point in my life. In the next ten years, I will attempt to find a job, enter a marriage, and think about children. The transition from childhood to adulthood at times overwhelms me. Every decision that I make now - who to date, what my major should be, what companies to interview with, how I treat my closest friends and family - seems to have a resounding impact on my future. Although I have always been content with my life, I am terrified of the unknown. I am frightened that I will choose the wrong career path and end up in a dismal job that I hate, that I will not succeed as a mother and wife, and that I will end up not being the person I want to be. At times like this, I find myself needing to take a deep breath and relax.
Despite my fears, somewhere along this journey, I have come to accept being afraid. If I knew where I was going to be in twenty years, where would the challenge and discovery in each day be? The best I can do now is be fully present in each moment. A quotation by Thich Nhat Hanh reads, "Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life." The most I can do is give love to those I care the most about, because in giving something of ourselves, we receive much greater. Although my future still remains unknown, my present life is full of peace, laughter, and happiness. The rest of my life will be full of decisions and tribulations, but it will also be an exhilarating ride and something I can't wait to take one day at a time.

- Brianne Schmidt

Friends and Their Unique Gifts

No two friends are the same. Each has his or her own gift for us. When we expect one friend to have all we need, we will always be hypercritical, never completely happy with what he or she does have.
One friend may offer us affection, another may stimulate our minds, another may strengthen our souls. The more able we are to receive the different gifts our friends have to give us, the more able we will be to offer our own unique but limited gifts. Thus, friendships create a beautiful tapestry of love.

- Henri Nouwen

Friends and Their Limitations

We need friends. Friends guide us, care for us, confront us in love, console us in times of pain. Although we speak of "making friends," friends cannot be made. Friends are free gifts from God. But God gives us the friends we need when we need them if we fully trust in God's love.
Friends cannot replace God. They have limitations and weaknesses like we have. Their love is never faultless, never complete. But in their limitations they can be signposts on our journey towards the unlimited and unconditional love of God. Let's enjoy the friends whom God has sent on our way.

- Henri Nouwen

A Childhood Memory

As a child, I could never put the holiday and the purpose of giving thanks together. Aunt Dorie would come drunk and weep at the table. No one ever knew why, and no one asked. Grandpa refused to speak to Grandma. My older brother showed his face only at the meal. Otherwise, he was conspicuously absent. In trying to make everything perfect, Mum would always have a migraine, and Dad would be steaming because Mum didn’t feel well. All the while, the Detroit Lions stormed our living room, making it impossible for anyone to do anything except sneak as many hors d’oeuvres as possible.

- Charles Moore

Losing and Gaining Our Lives

The great paradox of life is that those who lose their lives will gain them. This paradox becomes visible in very ordinary situations. If we cling to our friends, we may lose them, but when we are nonpossessive in our relationships, we will make many friends. When fame is what we seek and desire, it often vanishes as soon as we acquire it, but when we have no need to be known, we might be remembered long after our deaths. When we want to be in the centre, we easily end up on the margins, but when we are free enough to be wherever we must be, we find ourselves often in the centre.
Giving away our lives for others is the greatest of all human arts. This will gain us our lives.

- Henri Nouwen

Leadership and Growth

Studying the Way is like planting a tree -
if you cut it just when it branches out,
it can be used for firewood;
if you cut it when it's about to reach full growth,
it can be used for rafters;
if you cut it when it's somewhat stronger,
it can be used for beams;
and if you cut it when it's old and huge,
it can be used for pillars.
Could it be that when you take the attainment
over the long run the profit is greater?

- Zen Lessons, The Art of Leadership

Real Friend Test

A simple friend, when visiting, acts like a guest.
A real friend opens your refrigerator and helps himself (and doesn't feel even the least bit weird shutting your 'beer drawer' with her foot!)
A simple friend has never seen you cry. A real friend has shoulders soggy from your tears.
A simple friend doesn't know your parents' first names. A real friend has their phone numbers in his address book.
A simple friend brings a bottle of wine to your party. A real friend comes early to help you cook and stays late to help you clean.
A simple friend hates it when you call after they've gone to bed. A real friend asks you why you took so long to call.
A simple friend seeks to talk with you about your problems.
A real friend seeks to help you with your problems.
A simple friend wonders about your romantic history. A real friend could blackmail you with it.
A simple friend thinks the friendship is over when you have an argument. A real friend calls you after you had a fight.
A simple friend expects! you to always be there for them. A real friend expects to always be there for you!

source unknown

Dance and Smell the Flowers Occasionally

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word "refrigeration" mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch in a half hour?" She would gas up and stammer, "I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain." And my personal favourite: "It's Monday." She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because Australians cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches... We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going to," "I plan on," and "Someday, when things are settled down a bit."
When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.
Now... go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to... not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow." And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say "Hi"?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift... Thrown away... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!"
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, But by the moments that take our breath away.

source unknown

Understanding the Bible

Alas, so many intelligent people become preoccupied with dates and linguistic problems concerning the Bible that they have not time to seriously consider the Bible's main theme, God's love for us and our loving response to him. They seem so concerned for truth, yet neglect the real purpose of truth, which is to bring us closer to the God of truth.

- William Law in Christian Perfection

Making Our Lives Available to Others

One of the arguments we often use for not writing is this: "I have nothing original to say. Whatever I might say, someone else has already said it, and better than I will ever be able to." This, however, is not a good argument for not writing. Each human person is unique and original, and nobody has lived what we have lived. Furthermore, what we have lived, we have lived not just for ourselves but for others as well. Writing can be a very creative and invigorating way to make our lives available to ourselves and to others.
We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them.

- Henri Nouwen

Confronting The Issues

As disciples following Christ, there is an imperative need for us to neither ignore nor condemn, but rather to confront responsibly the moral and social issues of our times.

- John Stott in "Decisive Issues Facing Christians Today"

Writing, Opening a Deep Well

Writing is not just jotting down ideas. Often we say: "I don't know what to write. I have no thoughts worth writing down." But much good writing emerges from the process of writing itself. As we simply sit down in front of a sheet of paper and start to express in words what is on our minds or in our hearts, new ideas emerge, ideas that can surprise us and lead us to inner places we hardly knew were there.
One of the most satisfying aspects of writing is that it can open in us deep wells of hidden treasures that are beautiful for us as well as for others to see.

- Henri Nouwen

The Mystery Of Life And Death

Oh Dear God,
We come to You because we do not know where else to go.
We come to You with more questions than affirmations. We want to ask, "Why?", "Why now?" "Why them?"
We can not accept the glib answer that You need them for some angelic choir more than we need them here. It is not so.
We can not - we will not believe that it is some direct act of will on Your part that these young persons should die so soon. You would not tease us with promising futures, only to snuff out these lives before any fulfillment of their dreams.
We want to quarrel, but must confess that the mystery of life and death is beyond our mortal minds.
But we still come, in spite of questions, in spite of anger, because our pain is such that we need Your love and need Your comfort and need to feel Your presence more than we need answers that will not satisfy. Hold us close to You, close to each other and close to those we have lost.
Even as our own grief seems too much to bear, we remember those for whom these deaths are far more personal. We pray for their families, for those for whom life will be forever changed, where empty chairs and empty rooms and silent instruments will be constant reminders of their loss.
But, we also come to be reminded that we live in the afterglow of Easter. We have proclaimed that Christ is risen, that death has been conquered, that life continues beyond the event we call death and we claim the promises made that in life and in death we belong to You, brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore Your children always. Amen

- Joe G. Emerson, First United Methodist Church, Bloomington, Indiana

Writing to Save the Day

Writing can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories. Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write.
Quite often a difficult, painful, or frustrating day can be "redeemed" by writing about it. By writing we can claim what we have lived and thus integrate it more fully into our journeys. Then writing can become lifesaving for us and sometimes for others too.

- Henri Nouwen

Question from Above

What are spiritual questions? They are questions from above. Most questions people ask of Jesus are questions from below, such as the question about which of a woman's seven husbands she will be married to in the resurrection. Jesus does not answer this question because it comes from a legalistic mind-set. It is a question from below.
Often Jesus responds by changing this question. In the case of the woman with seven husbands he says, "At the resurrection men and women do not marry - have you never read what God himself said to you: 'I am God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?' He is God not of the dead but of the living" (Matthew 22:23-30).
We have to keep looking for the spiritual question if we want spiritual answers.

- Henri Nouwen

On the Journey Towards Accepting my Fears

My fears are woven into the very fabric of my being. I am only willing to articulate them in the presence of a few close people. I fear of my own anger and the loss of control. I fear running out of money and losing my good health. I fear the death of my wife and children and selfishly, the death of my father, because then I will become the elder of the family. Almost every morning I ask God to help me recognize my fears and live beyond them and in spite of them.
When I confront some of these fears, I do feel empowered. I feel that the heavily vaulted door to my heart has been replaced by a simple permeable membrane. And while I feel vulnerable, I know vulnerability is the human condition we wish to achieve without seeing ourselves as fragile.
Recently I have been able to tell my wife about my fears. To be 63 and still afraid of much of life is both a curse and a blessing. The curse is knowing how much growth must still take place before I am content with "me." The blessing is in knowing that I am alive and just like other people.
Sometimes, in my fear of becoming incapacitated or reduced to less than the self I want to be, I find myself acting out of my fears. At these times I choose not to take chances that would enhance my life. At other times, when fear is at bay, I willingly step out of my proscribed self and speak out for myself as well as for others.
I am wrestling with these issues daily and making progress. On the outside I am the fearless warrior for the "other," while at the same time I am hoping that someone will do battle for me! I am coming to know that finally, I am the one who must slay my own fears. At the end of the day, I thank God for standing with me throughout my daily journey.

- Albert Lewis

For Remembrance/Veterans Day

One day, a new ideal will arise, and there will be and end to all wars. I die convinced of this. It will need much hard work, but it will be achieved… The important thing, until that happens, is to hold one’s banner high and to struggle… Without struggle there is no life.

- Kaethe Kollwitz

Remembrance/Veteran's Day Thoughts...

• As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Valour is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul - Michel de Montaigne
• Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die - G. K. Chesterton
• How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! - Maya Angelou
• Freedom is never free - Author Unknown
• When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them - Chinese Proverb
• I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?' - Eve Merriam

Be Pre-Prayered

One Sunday morning, a simple saying came into my mind. I don't recall ever hearing it before. I was thinking of the word prepared, and the word preprayered came out. So here's the saying: "Be pre-prayered for the day."
Then I was reading the devotional "Streams in the Desert" by L.B. Cowman and the March 2 devotional confirmed my saying.
"Be ready in the morning, and then come up... Present yourself to Me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you." (Exodus 34:2-3)
"The morning is a critically important time of day. You must never face the day until you have faced God, not look into the face of others until you have looked into His. You cannot expect to be victorious, if you begin your day in your own strength alone. Begin the work of every day after having been influenced by a few reflective, quiet moments between your heart and God. Do not meet with others, even the members of your own family, until you have first met with the great Guest and honoured Companion of you life - Jesus Christ. Meet with Him alone and regularly, having His Book of counsel open before you. Then face the ordinary, and the unique, responsibilities of each day with the renewed influence and control of His character over all your actions."
I hope this encourages your day and your walk with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

- Karen Gonidakis

A Light In The Darkness

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., is a sombre and gripping place. Each of its four levels details a portion of the horror that left more than six million Jews dead between 1933 and 1945. It is a dark tour through history that you will never forget. Walking through the graphic and heart-wrenching exhibits, you can't help but feel overwhelmed by the sense of hopelessness and loss these people faced daily.
Yet in the midst of bleak tragedy there stands a bright light. On one floor is a large wall, listing the thousands of names of those who assisted the Jews during the Holocaust. These weren't necessarily strong or powerful people (although some of them were in prominent positions). They were shopkeepers, teachers, lawyers, and business professionals. They were old and young, men and women, from numerous countries and backgrounds. Whether these individuals provided food, shelter, money, letters of transport or a new home, they all provided hope. Through their selfless efforts these people quietly restored hope to millions. Their bravery and commitment to humanity was a light in the darkness. They brought purpose when life seemed filled with despair....
The wall stands out because it's a beacon of hope in a place where tragedy abounds. The lives represented there symbolize determination and selflessness in the midst of despair and fear.

- Dr. Norm Wakefield & Jody Brolsma in "Men Are from Israel, Women Are from Moab"

The Answer to Our Questions

We spend a lot of time and energy raising questions. Is it worth it? It is always good to ask ourselves why we raise a question. Do we want to get useful information? Do we want to show that someone else is wrong? Do we want to conquer knowledge? Do we want to grow in wisdom? Do we want to find a way to sanctity?
When we ponder these questions before asking our questions, we may discover that we need less time and energy for our questions. Perhaps we already have the information. Perhaps we don't need to show that someone is wrong. For many questions we may learn that we already have the answers, at least if we listen carefully to our own hearts.

- Henri Nouwen

Christ's Unique Claims

Some of the most obvious considerations, when thinking about the supremacy of Christ, are the claims He made about Himself. Other teachers said they were telling the truth. Christ said, "I ... am the truth" (John 14:6). Other teachers asked people to follow their teachings. Christ asked people to follow Him. More than twenty times in the Gospels Jesus spoke about the need to follow Him. The other great leaders taught people to worship God. Jesus accepted the worship of Thomas (John 20:28). Jesus made statements that clearly implied that He was God, and some of His hearers were so scandalised by these remarks that twice they wanted to stone Him for blasphemy (John 8:54-59; 10:30, 31).
Seven "I am" statements appear in John's Gospel, showing that Christ claimed to be the source of eternal life. He said, "I am the bread of life" (6:35); "I am the light of the world" (8:12); "I am the gate" (10:7, 9); "I am the good shepherd" (10:11); "I am the resurrection and the life" (11:25); "I am the way and the truth and the life" (14:6); "I am the true vine" (15:1). Leon Morris reminds us that "in each case the Greek form of 'I am' is emphatic." Each saying includes the personal pronoun "I." "There is no need to include the personal pronoun unless emphasis is required." Morris concludes that to Jewish ears, the words I am "aroused associations of the divine." These and other statements of Christ make us agree with J. T. Seamands' statement that the uniqueness of Christ "is not something we concede to Christ, but something he confronts us with."

- Ajith Fernando in "The Christian's Attitude Toward World Religions"

Fulfilling a Mission

When we live our lives as missions, we become aware that there is a home from where we are sent and to where we have to return. We start thinking about ourselves as people who are in a faraway country to bring a message or work on a project, but only for a certain amount of time. When the message has been delivered and the project is finished, we want to return home to give an account of our mission and to rest from our labours.
One of the most important spiritual disciplines is to develop the knowledge that the years of our lives are years "on a mission."

- Henri Nouwen

Being Sent Into the World

Each of us has a mission in life. Jesus prays to his Father for his followers, saying: "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18)

We seldom realise fully that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks. We act as if we have to choose how, where, and with whom to live. We act as if we were simply plopped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do.

- Henri Nouwen

Going Beyond Our Wants

Sometimes we behave like children in a toy shop. We want this, and that, and then something else. The many options confuse us and create an enormous restlessness in us. When someone says, "Well, what do you want? You can have one thing. Make up your mind," we do not know what to choose.
As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy. That is why we need inner and outer disciplines, to go beyond these wants and discover our mission in life.

- Henri Nouwen

Ordering Our Desires

Desire is often talked about as something we ought to overcome. Still, being is desiring: our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our souls are full of desires. Some are unruly, turbulent, and very distracting; some make us think deep thoughts and see great visions; some teach us how to love; and some keep us searching for God. Our desire for God is the desire that should guide all other desires. Otherwise our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls become one another's enemies and our inner lives become chaotic, leading us to despair and self-destruction.
Spiritual disciplines are not ways to eradicate all our desires but ways to order them so that they can serve one another and together serve God.

- Henri Nouwen

Walking Advertisements

We ought to be Christians in large type, so that it would not be necessary (for others) to be long in our society, or to regard us through spectacles, in order to detect our true discipleship. The message of our lives should resemble the big advertisements which can be read on the street-boardings by all who pass by.

- F. B. Meyer

How Many Lies Have You Told Today?

No, not those kinds of lies; these kinds of lies:
"I'm too old."
"I'm too young."
"Love hurts.""
"I work better under pressure."
"Successful people are bad parents."
"I can't lose weight."
"I can't save money."
And the list goes on and on. These negative belief barriers are lies. These lies are powerful motivators that will actually cause you to repel success. You will just push it away like a child refuses spinach. The problem isn't just your fear. No, your fear represents a powerful, self-limiting belief. Until you identify and replace these lies, no amount of positive thinking will help you create and maintain success.
What makes these lies (negative beliefs) so powerful and insidious is that most of the time you don't even realise you say them. You will think you want something, you'll write it down, you'll back it up with positive thinking, but something happens to keep you form the very thing you say you want.
It is the negative beliefs you feed your mind that sabotage your efforts of success. So, stop the insanity! Stop lying to yourself. Be hypercritical about your self-talk. Make every effort that what you say to yourself – about yourself and your life – reflect an empowering belief. These truths will motivate you to pick up the phone, set up a meeting, ask for the sale, finish the project, eat healthier, put on those workout clothes, and do the things you need to do to get what you want!
Stop telling lies.

- Lisa Jimenez, M.Ed.

Healing Contradictions

The many contradictions in our lives - such as being home while feeling homeless, being busy while feeling bored, being popular while feeling lonely, being believers while feeling many doubts - can frustrate, irritate, and even discourage us. They make us feel that we are never fully present. Every door that opens for us makes us see how many more doors are closed.
But there is another response. These same contradictions can bring us into touch with a deeper longing, for the fulfillment of a desire that lives beneath all desires and that only God can satisfy. Contradictions, thus understood, create the friction that can help us move toward God.

- Henri Nouwen

Freedom Attracts

When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not. Freedom attracts wherever it appears. A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell. Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us. But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom.
Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be.

- Henri Nouwen

On the Journey Towards Living With Doubt

Doubt is an essential ingredient in a life of faith. Nevertheless, I grew up believing that there was no place for doubt in my life. To be a person of faith, one had to eradicate every doubtful thought. It takes a major paradigm shift to welcome doubt as a friend. On the other hand, doubt can easily become an idol we worship. Because doubt can take on the appearance of academic thoroughness and depth, I find myself tempted toward intellectual superiority and cynicism. This becomes a paralysis that shadows faith. And doubt is grounded in self-focus - my fears, my understanding of truth, my expectations. This becomes a solipsism that isolates us from the life God offers.
I find myself invited, through struggling with doubts, to look beyond self-perceptions to God. This can be a long process. Knowing my bent to control life and doubt God's abilities, my spiritual director encouraged me to pray with the verse "His [Jesus'] divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3a). For four months I wrestled with the inner doubts that surfaced as I faced into the actuality of this suggested truth. As I intentionally chose to shift my focus to the wonder of God, I was drawn to embrace Truth, letting my view of reality fall away. Facing my doubts was deepening my faith!

- Steve Imbach

The Spirit Will Speak in Us

When we are spiritually free, we do not have to worry about what to say or do in unexpected, difficult circumstances. When we are not concerned about what others think of us or what we will get for what we do, the right words and actions will emerge from the center of our beings because the Spirit of God, who makes us children of God and sets us free, will speak and act through us.
Jesus says: "When you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you" (Matthew 10:19-20).
Let's keep trusting the Spirit of God living within us, so that we can live freely in a world that keeps handing us over to judges and evalutators.

- Henri Nouwen

God And Man

"If these statements are true, that God and men are akin, there is but one course open to men, to do as Socrates did: never reply to one who asks his country, 'I am an Athenian', or 'I am a Corinthian', but 'I am a citizen of the universe.' For why do you say that you are an Athenian, instead of merely a native of the little spot on which your bit of a body was cast forth at birth? Plainly you call yourself Athenian or Corinthian after that more sovereign region which includes not only the very spot where you were born, and all your household, but also generally that region from which the race of your forbears has come down to you. When a man therefore has realised that there is nothing so great as this frame of things wherein men and God are united, and that from it come the seeds from which are sprung not only my own father or grandfather, but all things that are begotten and that grow upon earth, why should he not call himself a citizen of the universe and a son of God? Why should he fear anything that can happen to him among men? When kinship with Caesar or any other of those who are powerful in Rome is sufficient to make men live in security, above all scorn and free from every fear, shall not the fact that we have God as maker and father and kinsman relieve us from pains and fears?"

- Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter IX ~Epictetus - 55 AD to 135 AD~

Growing Into Our True Freedom

True freedom is the freedom of the children of God. To reach that freedom requires a lifelong discipline since so much in our world militates against it. The political, economic, social, and even religious powers surrounding us all want to keep us in bondage so that we will obey their commands and be dependent on their rewards.
But the spiritual truth that leads to freedom is the truth that we belong not to the world but to God, whose beloved children we are. By living lives in which we keep returning to that truth in word and deed, we will gradually grow into our true freedom.

- Henri Nouwen

To Let the Word Become Flesh

Spiritual reading is food for our souls. As we slowly let the words of the Bible or any spiritual book enter into our minds and descend into our hearts, we become different people. The Word gradually becomes flesh in us and thus transforms our whole beings. Thus spiritual reading is a continuing incarnation of the divine Word within us. In and through Jesus, the Christ, God became flesh long ago. In and through our reading of God's Word and our reflection on it, God becomes flesh in us now and thus makes us into living Christs for today.
Let's keep reading God's Word with love and great reverence.

- Henri Nouwen

Reading Spiritually About Spiritual Things

Reading often means gathering information, acquiring new insight and knowledge, and mastering a new field. It can lead us to degrees, diplomas, and certificates. Spiritual reading, however, is different. It means not simply reading about spiritual things but also reading about spiritual things in a spiritual way. That requires a willingness not just to read but to be read, not just to master but to be mastered by words. As long as we read the Bible or a spiritual book simply to acquire knowledge, our reading does not help us in our spiritual lives. We can become very knowledgeable about spiritual matters without becoming truly spiritual people.
As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through its words

- Henri Nouwen

King Jesus

"Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are you a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.'" (John 18:37)

We have two kinds of kings in this world. The first is the parliamentary monarch, such as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. As the object of great reverence, she is encircled by grandeur and gilded with tradition. In terms of real power, however, she has little; her opinions are heard with politeness and patience, but her office is primarily ceremonial. The British prime minister holds the reins of government.
The other kind of king is the absolute monarch whose office is both ceremonially impressive and politically powerful. He is head of state, he leads the nation, and his authority is supreme.
Many Christians treat Jesus like a parliamentary king. Once a week - if it's convenient! - they hold court with Him and make Him the object of great reverence. He is heard with politeness and patience, but in terms of daily life He has little influence.
Our Lord is an absolute monarch. He would rather have one person who is 100 percent committed to Him than a hundred people who are 80% committed. John Wesley said, "if I had 300 men who feared nothing but God, hated nothing but sin, and determined to know nothing among men but Christ, and Him crucified, I would set the world on fire."

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Queen Victoria once asked General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, for the secret of his success. "I guess," replied Booth, "the reason is because God has all there is of me."
Does He have all there is of you?

- Robert J. Morgan in "He Shall Be Called"

Laying Down Your Life for Your Friends

Good Shepherds are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep (see John 10:11). As spiritual leaders walking in the footsteps of Jesus, we are called to lay down our lives for our people. This laying down might in special circumstances mean dying for others. But it means first of all making our own lives - our sorrows and joys, our despair and hope, our loneliness and experience of intimacy - available to others as sources of new life.
One of the greatest gifts we can give others is ourselves. We offer consolation and comfort, especially in moments of crisis, when we say: "Do not be afraid, I know what you are living and I am living it with you. You are not alone." Thus we become Christ-like shepherds.

- Henri Nouwen

The Last Supper's Table

There is, after all, no table like it. This table reaches from that upper room in Jerusalem all the way through cathedrals in Europe and America, to the place where you will next take the sacrament. This table is revered in mud hut churches in Africa, where people speak the sacred words in languages you and I have never heard. It has often been set up, in crude fashion, in the darkest pits of confinement, where people imprisoned for their faith in Christ have saved a fragment of bread and a spoonful of water just so they can say, "His body. His blood." And they do it with a triumph that shakes the dungeon walls ... So I ponder that once, long ago, there was a table, where thirteen men sat ... But who could have imagined that night that where thirteen sat at the table, hundreds of millions would sit at the same table, two millennia later, everywhere on this planet. And someone will say, "The body of our Lord. The blood of Christ, shed for you. And in that moment, eternity will break in upon human souls. At a common piece of furniture called a table, you and I will eat a crumb of bread, we will drink from a cup, and for that moment, all of the company of heaven will observe in splendid awe. Such a table! Such a table!

- J. Ellsworth Kalas in "New Testament Stories from the Back Side"

The Shepherd and the Sheep

Spiritual leadership is the leadership of the Good Shepherd. As Jesus says, good shepherds know their sheep, and their sheep know them (see John 10:14). There must be a true mutuality between shepherds and their sheep. Good leaders know their own, and their own know them. Between them is mutual trust, mutual openness, mutual care, and mutual love. To follow our leaders we cannot be afraid of them, and to lead our followers we need their encouragement and support.
Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd to show the great intimacy that must exist between leaders and those entrusted to them. Without such intimacy, leadership easily becomes oppressive.

- Henri Nouwen

A Picture Of The Cross

It's the picture of violence
Yet the key to peace
A picture of suffering
Yet the key to healing
A picture of death
Yet the key to life
A picture of utter weakness
Yet the key to power
A picture of capital punishment
Yet the key to mercy and forgiveness
A picture of vicious hatred
Yet the key to love
A picture of supreme shame
Yet the Christian's supreme boast.

- Author unknown

On the Journey Towards Living With Doubt

It isn't easy to live with doubt. In fact, living with doubt can take many of us to places we would rather not go. And yet, doubt is essential in the spiritual life, not as the opposite of faith but as its partner. As the two dance together in the ebb and flow of life's movement, doubt brings honesty to the floor.
Doubt grounds me in the integrity of the questions. Glib, trite answers have no place in the room of doubt. Doubt invites me to go to places I would rather avoid, because the road is not well marked. Signs sometimes reveal the way, as helpful guides also do. More often than not, though, traveling doubt's path takes me more fully into the life of faith.
Doubt and faith need each other as part of the dance's creative tension. Though I am reluctant to get out on the floor, the music is playing, and I am compelled to respond to the dance.

- Keith Reynolds

The Authority of Compassion

Mostly we think of people with great authority as higher up, far away, hard to reach. But spiritual authority comes from compassion and emerges from deep inner solidarity with those who are "subject" to authority. The one who is fully like us, who deeply understands our joys and pains or hopes and desires, and who is willing and able to walk with us, that is the one to whom we gladly give authority and whose "subjects" we are willing to be.
It is the compassionate authority that empowers, encourages, calls forth hidden gifts, and enables great things to happen. True spiritual authorities are located in the point of an upside-down triangle, supporting and holding into the light everyone they offer their leadership to.

- Henri Nouwen

Finding Hope

"You now have sorrow," Jesus has told [His disciples], "but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you." (John 16:22)
Never on this earth has there been a time when we haven't needed hope - but hope is critical when the ones we love the most are about to leave us. I believe that is why Jesus picked this time to fill His disciples with hope . . .
All of us have felt the emotional pain of saying good-bye to somebody we love. Perhaps we've lost a job. Or we've seen the breakup of a home, perhaps even our own. And the questions in all of our hearts are, "Where do I go? What do I do? Where can I find hope?" We feel as if we have been abandoned at the corner of Hopelessness and Despair.
The good news is that we who know God through His Son, Jesus Christ, don't have to be left at such a desperate corner. There is an answer, and His name is Jesus. That's not trite. It's not merely theological. It's not just church talk.
It's true.

- David Jeremiah in "Jesus' Final Warning"

Authority and Obedience

Authority and obedience can never be divided, with some people having all the authority while others only have to obey. This separation causes authoritarian behaviour on the one side and doormat behaviour on the other. It perverts authority as well as obedience. A person with great authority who has nobody to be obedient to is in great spiritual danger. A very obedient person who has no authority over anyone is equally in danger.
Jesus spoke with great authority, but his whole life was complete obedience to his Father, and Jesus, who said to his Father, "Let it be as you, not I, would have it" (Matthew 26:39), has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (see Matthew 28:18). Let us ask ourselves: Do we live our authority in obedience and do we live our obedience with authority?

- Henri Nouwen

Still Undecided

Many of you probably could care less about the fact that Brett Favre, the Green Bay Packers quarterback and three-time MVP, is still undecided about his retirement. But here in Green Bay, and throughout Wisconsin, it's a big deal. The press and Packer fans are getting impatient.
I think all of heaven is impatient, too. Not for Brett Favre's decision, but for the decision of some of our loved ones, our co-workers, our neighbors, and, yes, some of us. Too many these days are still undecided. They are not sure that they really want to choose Christ as their Saviour and their Lord. Jesus confronted people directly about the choice to become His follower.
We can join the throng this Sunday at worship and blend in with everyone, but there comes a time when we face a personal and private decision about the One who died for our sins and rose again on Easter.
Yes, the bottom line is that our relationship with the Lord comes down to a very intimate and individual choice. Christianity is not a social club or a decision to follow the masses. It is rather a very personal and individual relationship with Jesus Christ. Have you made that choice? Or are you still undecided?

- Rev. David T. Wilkinson

Loving Our Spiritual Leaders

Religious leaders, priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams can be admired and revered but also hated and despised. We expect that our religious leaders will bring us closer to God through their prayers, teaching, and guidance. Therefore, we watch their behaviour carefully and listen critically to their words. But precisely because we expect, often without fully realising it, to be superhuman, we are easily disappointed or even feel betrayed when they prove to be just as human as we are. Thus, our unmitigated admiration quickly turns into unrestrained anger.
Let's try to love our religious leaders, forgive them their faults, and see them as brothers and sisters. Then we will enable them, in their brokenness, to lead us closer to the heart of God.

- Henri Nouwen

From Blaming to Forgiving

Our most painful suffering often comes from those who love us and those we love. The relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, teachers and students, pastors and parishioners - these are where our deepest wounds occur. Even late in life, yes, even after those who wounded us have long since died, we might still need help to sort out what happened in these relationships.
The great temptation is to keep blaming those who were closest to us for our present, condition saying: "You made me who I am now, and I hate who I am." The great challenge is to acknowledge our hurts and claim our true selves as being more than the result of what other people do to us. Only when we can claim our God-made selves as the true source of our being will we be free to forgive those who have wounded us.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Handed Over to Suffering

People who live close together can be sources of great sorrow for one another. When Jesus chose his twelve apostles, Judas was one of them. Judas is called a traitor. A traitor, according to the literal meaning of the Greek word for "betraying," is someone who hands the other over to suffering.
The truth is that we all have something of the traitor in us because each of us hands our fellow human beings over to suffering somehow, somewhere, mostly without intending or even knowing it. Many children, even grown-up children, can experience deep anger toward their parents for having protected them too much or too little. When we are willing to confess that we often hand those we love over to suffering, even against our best intentions, we will be more ready to forgive those who, mostly against their will, are the causes of our pain.

- Henri Nouwen

Focused On Christ

You could almost believe the apostle had today in mind when he wrote to his young friend, "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from Godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing, have wandered from the faith" (1 Timothy 6:20-21).
With all of this information and all these options at our fingertips, it is more important than ever that we stay focused on the true God and His Son, Jesus, not allowing ourselves to be sidetracked into areas of false teaching that could prove destructive to our faith.
When you stop to think about it, the key to just about everything lies in FOCUS.
The writer to the Hebrews called it "fixing our thoughts" and "fixing our eyes." "Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess . Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 3:1; 12:2). In other words, rivet your attention on Jesus. Lock onto God's Son for dear life. Even when distractions around you seem overpowering. Even when your heart is breaking.

- Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton in "More Jesus, Less Religion"

Friends as Reminders of Our Truth

Sometimes our sorrow overwhelms us so much that we no longer can believe in joy. Life just seems a cup filled to the brim with war, violence, rejection, loneliness, and endless disappointments.
At times like this we need our friends to remind us that crushed grapes can produce tasty wine. It might be hard for us to trust that any joy can come from our sorrow, but when we start taking steps in the direction of our friends' advice, even when we ourselves are not yet able to feel the truth of what they say, the joy that seemed to be lost may be found again and our sorrow may become livable.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Humble and Confident

As we look at the stars and let our minds wander into the many galaxies, we come to feel so small and insignificant that anything we do, say, or think seems completely useless. But if we look into our souls and let our minds wander into the endless galaxies of our interior lives, we become so tall and significant that everything we do, say, or think appears of great importance.
We have to keep looking both ways to remain humble and confident, humorous and serious, playful and responsible. Yes, the human person is very small and very tall. It is the tension between the two that keeps us spiritually awake.

- Henri Nouwen

The Way Back Home

"Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" - Acts 2:38

Repentance prepares us for His presence. In fact, you cannot live in His presence without repentance. Repentance permits pursuit of His presence. It builds the road for you to get to God (or for God to get to you!).

- Tommy Tenney in The Heart of a God Chaser

On the Journey Towards Living With Doubt

In his ecstatic poem "I thank You God for most this amazing day," e. e. cummings wonders how any "human merely being" could "doubt unimaginable You." And I know that feeling, from rare moments when I seem to rise above, sink below, or expand beyond my small, everyday sense of self, my busily thinking mind, my ego working so hard to preserve the separateness of me. But most of the time, my consciousness is filled with doubts of every variety.
It is so easy, and often not unjustifiable, to doubt the truth of what we are told, the motives of people who affect our lives, the security of our future, the value and meaning of our past. And it can be hard to see the presence of God as the forest that contains all those trees. In this routine state of mind, it's just as easy for me to wonder how any "human merely being" could not doubt the unimaginable.
I wish I could trust and believe unquestioningly. But doubt is an undeniable aspect of who I am. I cannot banish it. But I can work diligently to keep it from sliding into the negative entrenchment of cynicism. Perhaps the key is to make sure I also doubt my doubt: remember my own experiences of assurance, really listen when others share theirs, and leave room for the inbreaking of transcendent certainty, which can come in the most surprising ways.

- Susan M. S. Brown

Deeply Rooted in God

Trees that grow tall have deep roots. Great height without great depth is dangerous. The great leaders of this world - like St. Francis, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., - were all people who could live with public notoriety, influence, and power in a humble way because of their deep spiritual rootedness.
Without deep roots we easily let others determine who we are. But as we cling to our popularity, we may lose our true sense of self. Our clinging to the opinion of others reveals how superficial we are. We have little to stand on. We have to be kept alive by adulation and praise. Those who are deeply rooted in the love of God can enjoy human praise without being attached to it.

- Henri Nouwen

The Leadership Task

The task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God's people out of slavery, through the desert land to a new land of freedom. Christian leaders have the arduous task of responding to personal struggles, family conflicts, national calamities, and international tensions with an articulate faith in God's real presence.

- Henri Nouwen

Daring to Become Dependent

When someone gives us a watch but we never wear it, the watch is not really received. When someone offers us an idea but we do not respond to it, that idea is not truly received. When someone introduces us to a friend but we ignore him or her, that friend does not feel well received.
Receiving is an art. It means allowing the other to become part of our lives. It means daring to become dependent on the other. It asks for the inner freedom to say: "Without you I wouldn't be who I am." Receiving with the heart is therefore a gesture of humility and love. So many people have been deeply hurt because their gifts were not well received. Let us be good receivers.

- Henri Nouwen

The Truth Shall Make You Odd

What characterises Christianity in the modern world is its odd-ness. Christianity is home for people who are out of step, unfashionable, unconventional and counter-cultural. As Peter says, "strangers and aliens."
I pastor the slowest growing church in America. We started twelve years ago with 90 members and have un-grown to 30. We're about as far as you can get from a "user friendly" church - not because our congregation is unfriendly, but because our services are unpredictable, unpolished and inconsistent.
We're an "odd-friendly" church, attracting unique and different followers of Christ who make every service a surprise. We refuse to edit oddness and incompetence from our services. We believe our oddness matters. We want our service filled with mistakes and surprises, because life is full of mistakes and surprises.
One Sunday morning, during the time for prayer requests, a member began describing the critical illness of her father. Because she was close to her father, her request for prayer was frequently interrupted by tears. Those around her reached out a hand or nodded with sadness. Some found their eyes filling with tears as well. The woman finished her request as best as she could.
Seated in the front row was Sadie - a young woman with Down's syndrome. Sadie stood and walked up the aisle until she saw the woman in the middle of her row. Stepping over the feet of other people in the aisle, Sadie reached the woman, bent down on her knees, laid her head on the woman's lap, and cried with her.
Sadie "inconvenienced" an entire row of people, stepped on their shoes, and forced them to make room for her, but none of us will ever forget that moment. Sadie is still teaching the rest of us what the odd compassion of Christ's church looks like.
Someone said "you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd." Whoever made that statement understood what it means to be a follower of Christ. Followers of Christ are odd. Oddness is important because it's the quality that adds colour, texture, variety, and beauty to the human condition. Christ doesn't make us the same. What He does is affirm our differentness.
Oddness is important because the most dangerous word in Western culture is "sameness." Sameness is a virus that infects members of industrialized nations and causes an allergic reaction to anyone who's different. This virus affects the decision-making part of our brain, resulting in an obsession with making the identical choices that everyone else is making.
Sameness is a disease with disastrous consequences - differences are ignored, uniqueness is not listened to, our gifts are cancelled out, and the place where life, passion, and joy reside are snuffed out.
Sameness is the result of sin. Sin does much more than infect us with lust and greed; it flattens the human race, franchises us, attempts to make us all homogenous. Sameness is the cemetery where our distinctiveness dies. In a sea of sameness, no one has an identity.
But Christians do have an identity. Aliens! We're the odd ones, the strange ones, the misfits, the outsiders, the incompatibles. Oddness is a gift of God that sits dormant until God's spirit gives it life and shape. Oddness is the consequence of following the One who made us unique, different, and in His image!
May our youth ministries be the home of oddness, the place where differentness is encouraged, where sameness is considered a sin, so that the image of our holy and odd God will be lifted up for all to see.

- Mike Yaconelli

The Importance of Receiving

Receiving often is harder than giving. Giving is very important: giving insight, giving hope, giving courage, giving advice, giving support, giving money, and, most of all, giving ourselves. Without giving there is no brotherhood and sisterhood.
But receiving is just as important, because by receiving we reveal to the givers that they have gifts to offer. When we say, "Thank you, you gave me hope; thank you, you gave me a reason to live; thank you, you allowed me to realise my dream," we make givers aware of their unique and precious gifts. Sometimes it is only in the eyes of the receivers that givers discover their gifts.

- Henri Nouwen

The Dignity to Give and Receive

"Nobody is so poor that he/she has nothing to give, and nobody is so rich that he/she has nothing to receive." These words by Pope John-Paul II offer a powerful direction for all who want to work for peace. No peace is thinkable as long as the world remains divided into two groups: those who give and those who receive. Real human dignity is found in giving as well as receiving. This is true not only for individuals but for nations, cultures, and religious communities as well.
A true vision of peace sees a continuous mutuality between giving and receiving. Let's never give anything without asking ourselves what we are receiving from those to whom we give, and let's never receive anything without asking what we have to give to those from whom we receive.

- Henri Nouwen

This Is Why We Send Each Other Jokes

This explains why we forward jokes.
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"
"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.
"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.
"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
"Excuse me!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.
"There should be a bowl by the pump."
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree
"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.
"This is Heaven," he answered.
"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."
"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"
"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."
Soooo...
Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word.
Maybe this will explain.
When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes.
When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes.
When you have something to say, but don't know what, and don't know how, you forward jokes.
Also to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get?
A forwarded joke.
So, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile.
You are all welcome @ my water bowl anytime .

source unknown

The Beauty of Shyness

There is something beautiful about shyness, even though in our culture shyness is not considered a virtue. On the contrary, we are encouraged to be direct, look people straight in the eyes, tell them what is on our minds, and share our stories without a blush.
But this unflinching soul-baring, confessional attitude quickly becomes boring. It is like trees without shadows. Shy people have long shadows, where they keep much of their beauty hidden from intruders' eyes. Shy people remind us of the mystery of life that cannot be simply explained or expressed. They invite us to reverent and respectful friendships and to a wordless being together in love.

- Henri Nouwen

Travelling With the Eyes of God

Travelling - seeing new sights, hearing new music, and meeting new people - is exciting and exhilarating. But when we have no home to return to where someone will ask us, "How was your trip?" we might be less eager to go. Travelling is joyful when we travel with the eyes and ears of those who love us, who want to see our slides and hear our stories.
This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people ... and be happy to return home.

- Henri Nouwen

Smiles Breaking Through Tears

Dying is a gradual diminishing and final vanishing over the horizon of life. When we watch a sailboat leaving port and moving toward the horizon, it becomes smaller and smaller until we can no longer see it. But we must trust that someone is standing on a faraway shore seeing that same sailboat become larger and larger until it reaches its new harbor. Death is a painful loss. When we return to our homes after a burial, our hearts are in grief. But when we think about the One standing at the other shore eagerly waiting to welcome our beloved friend into a new home, a smile can break through our tears.

- Henri Nouwen

The Autumn of Life

The autumn leaves can dazzle us with their magnificent colours: deep red, purple, yellow, gold, bronze, in countless variations and combinations. Then, shortly after having shown their unspeakable beauty, they fall to the ground and die. The barren trees remind us that winter is near. Likewise, the autumn of life has the potential to be very colorful: wisdom, humour, care, patience, and joy may bloom splendidly just before we fall to the ground and die.
As we look at the barren trees and remember our dead, let us be grateful for the beauty we saw in them and wait hopefully for a new spring.

- Henri Nouwen

On the Journey Towards Being Vulnerable

Our media are saturated with images of individuals wearing the mask of "all togetherness". I rub shoulders daily with people quick to reassure me of the unreality "I'm fine, thanks". I find myself trapped in a superficial community, stuffed in my self-imposed cocoon of fear and shame, afraid to admit my brokenness and weakness. I can't face the possibility of rejection and loss, not making the cut, not fitting in. To break out of this prison, we are invited into the honesty of becoming vulnerable. Vulnerability dismantles our obsession with getting it right.
As I take off the mask of "all togetherness", I discover a vast world of freedom. In my vulnerability, I become accessible to fellow companions on the journey. My vulnerability invites others in, offers understanding and empathy, but also can be a cry for help. Even though vulnerability's path is often painful, its reward of deepening intimacy is welcome. Being vulnerable opens my heart to a larger worldview. I become free to explore beyond the exhausting self-focus of supporting my false image of "OKness". I find myself challenged to deeper transparency as I sing along with Leonard Cohen "Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in".

- Steve Imbach

Where Mourning and Dancing Touch Each Other

"[There is] a time for mourning, a time for dancing" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). But mourning and dancing are never fully separated. Their "times" do not necessarily follow each other. In fact, their "times" may become one "time." Mourning may turn into dancing and dancing into mourning without showing a clear point where one ends and the other starts.
Often our grief allows us to choreograph our dance while our dance creates the space for our grief. We lose a beloved friend, and in the midst of our tears we discover an unknown joy. We celebrate a success, and in the midst of the party we feel deep sadness. Mourning and dancing, grief and laughter, sadness and gladness - they belong together as the sad-faced clown and the happy-faced clown, who make us both cry and laugh. Let's trust that the beauty of our lives becomes visible where mourning and dancing touch each other.

- Henri Nouwen

God-Sized Assignments

Some people say, "God will never ask me to do something I can't do." I have come to the place in my life that, if the assignment I sense God is giving me is something that I know I can handle, I know it is probably not from God. The kind of assignments God gives in the Bible are always God-sized. They are always beyond what people can do, because He wants to demonstrate His nature, His strength, His provision, and His kindness to His people and to a watching world. This is the only way the world will come to know Him.

- Henry Blackaby in "Experiencing God"

Living Faithfully in an Ambiguous World

Our hearts and minds desire clarity. We like to have a clear picture of a situation, a clear view of how things fit together, and clear insight into our own and the world's problems. But just as in nature colours and shapes mingle without clear-cut distinctions, human life doesn't offer the clarity we are looking for. The borders between love and hate, evil and good, beauty and ugliness, heroism and cowardice, care and neglect, guilt and blamelessness are mostly vague, ambiguous, and hard to discern.
It is not easy to live faithfully in a world full of ambiguities. We have to learn to make wise choices without needing to be entirely sure.

- Henri Nouwen

Becoming Friends of Our Children

Can fathers and mothers become friends of their children? Many children leave their parents to find freedom and independence and return to them only occasionally. When they return they often feel like children again and therefore do not want to stay long. Many parents worry about children's well-being after they have left home. When their children visit they want to be caring parents again.
But a mother can also become the daughter of her daughter and a father the son of his son. A mother can become the daughter of her son and a father the son of his daughter. Father and mother become brother and sister of their own children, and they all can become friends. It doesn't happen often, but when it does happen it is as beautiful to watch as the dawn of a new day.

- Henri Nouwen

The Healing Touch

Touch, yes, touch, speaks the wordless words of love. We receive so much touch when we are babies and so little when we are adults. Still, in friendship touch often gives more life than words. A friend's hand stroking our back, a friend's arms resting on our shoulder, a friend's fingers wiping our tears away, a friend's lips kissing our forehead - these are true consolation. These moments of touch are truly sacred. They restore, they reconcile, they reassure, they forgive, they heal.
Everyone who touched Jesus and everyone whom Jesus touched were healed. God's love and power went out from him (see Luke 6:19). When a friend touches us with free, nonpossessive love, it is God's incarnate love that touches us and God's power that heals us.

- Henri Nouwen

The Unfinished Symphony

We cannot judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents. Sometimes the 'unfinisheds' are among the most beautiful symphonies.

- Victor Frankl in "Man's Search for Meaning"

Friendship in the Twilight Zones of Our Heart

There is a twilight zone in our own hearts that we ourselves cannot see. Even when we know quite a lot about ourselves - our gifts and weaknesses, our ambitions and aspirations, our motives and drives - large parts of ourselves remain in the shadow of consciousness.
This is a very good thing. We always will remain partially hidden to ourselves. Other people, especially those who love us, can often see our twilight zones better than we ourselves can. The way we are seen and understood by others is different from the way we see and understand ourselves. We will never fully know the significance of our presence in the lives of our friends. That's a grace, a grace that calls us not only to humility but also to a deep trust in those who love us. It is in the twilight zones of our hearts where true friendships are born.

- Henri Nouwen

Sharing Our Solitude

A friend is more than a therapist or a confessor, even though a friend can sometimes heal us and offer us God's forgiveness.
A friend is that other person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer. A friend is that other person with whom we can look at a tree and say, "Isn't that beautiful," or sit on the beach and silently watch the sun disappear under the horizon. With a friend we don't have to say or do something special. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us.

- Henri Nouwen

Imitation Of Christ

Our imitation of God in this life - that is, our willed imitation, as distinct from any likenesses which He has impressed upon our natures or our states - must be an imitation of God Incarnate. Our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the divine life operating under human conditions.

- C. S. Lewis in "The Four Loves"

The Secret To True Freedom

Saul of Tarsus thought he was in God's will when in fact, he was in bondage to his strict religious observance of the law. When God interrupted his life, Paul was transported from religion to relationship. He became a new creation in Christ. Paul learned to breathe the air of freedom by living in God's will. Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free" (John 8:36, NLV).
Henrietta Mears, a beloved Bible teacher, taught the secret to true freedom. She explained, "A bird is free in the air. Place a bird in the water and he has lost his liberty. A fish is free in the water, but leave him on the sand and he perishes. He is out of his realm. So, the Christian is free when he does the will of God and is obedient to God's command. This is as natural a realm for God's child as the water is for the fish, or the air for the bird."

- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose "Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians"

On the Journey Towards Living With Doubt

Absalom unexpectedly came up against David's servants
(2 Samuel 18:9)

Absalom was riding his donkey after losing a battle against his father, David, when his head got stuck in an oak tree. When David's men saw him hanging there, they killed him thinking that this was a positive action. But when David heard the "good news," he wept over his son's death.
Life ... what will happen next? I can be optimistic that my life's obstacles will, like Absalom, hang helplessly in oak trees. I can be doubtful when I wonder if my good work will be appreciated, or what losses and failures my future holds. Optimism is fun; it's more difficult to live with doubt. In reality, I live with plenty of both.
How can I live with doubt? While the path between doubt and despair is well travelled, as people of faith, we believe that doubt is not the end of the story but rather an opening through which the saving presence of God breaks into our lives. Jesus also hung from a tree. He doubted as he cried to his father in anguish. The heavens darkened as a father grieved a son's death. Jesus' tomb, however, was not the end of the story but a womb that birthed this world's greatest hope.
Our doubt sometimes feels tomb-like. Rather than see doubt as an invitation to despair, however, we can claim doubt's darkness as a womb that will birth a deeper experience of God's love in our lives.

by Doug Weibe

The Ways to Self-knowledge

"Know yourself" is good advice. But to know ourselves doesn't mean to analyse ourselves. Sometimes we want to know ourselves as if we were machines that could be taken apart and put back together at will. At certain critical times in our lives it might be helpful to explore in some detail the events that led us to our crises, but we make a mistake when we think that we can ever completely understand ourselves and explain the full meaning of our lives to others.
Solitude, silence, and prayer are often the best ways to self-knowledge. Not because they offer solutions for the complexity of our lives but because they bring us in touch with our sacred center, where God dwells. That sacred centre may not be analysed. It is the place of adoration, thanksgiving, and praise.

- Henri Nouwen

What Kind Of Life?

What kind of life does my heart want? I find no easy answers to that question, but I know the answer means giving up the fantasy of always moving forward and allowing instead for seasons of dormancy. And it is always time to listen. Perhaps the heart's single greatest desire is to listen attentively to the voice of God. My heart wants the kind of life that leaves room for God.

- Elizabeth J. Canham in Heart Whispers

Claiming the Sacredness of Our Being

Are we friends with ourselves? Do we love who we are? These are important questions because we cannot develop good friendships with others unless we have befriended ourselves.
How then do we befriend ourselves? We have to start by acknowledging the truth of ourselves. We are beautiful but also limited, rich but also poor, generous but also worried about our security. Yet beyond all that we are people with souls, sparks of the divine. To acknowledge the truth of ourselves is to claim the sacredness of our being, without fully understanding it. Our deepest being escapes our own mental or emotional grasp. But when we trust that our souls are embraced by a loving God, we can befriend ourselves and reach out to others in loving relationships.

- Henri Nouwen

The Blessing Of Prayer

How must God feel every Sunday when, all over the nation, so many people gather in churches but do so little actual praying? Congregations make time in the weekly schedule for everything from basketball leagues to weight-loss classes, but they can't seem to find a slot for a prayer meeting. The Lord waits to bless His people with His abundant supply, but we don't take the time to open the channel. What a terrible epitaph: "You do not have, because you do not ask God." (James 4:2)
God is drawn to prayer. He delights in communication with us. Prayer releases His blessing into our lives.

- Jim Cymbala in "Fresh Faith"

A Still Place in the Market

"Be still and acknowledge that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). These are words to take with us in our busy lives. We may think about stillness in contrast to our noisy world. But perhaps we can go further and keep an inner stillness even while we carry on business, teach, work in construction, make music, or organise meetings.
It is important to keep a still place in the "marketplace." This still place is where God can dwell and speak to us. It also is the place from where we can speak in a healing way to all the people we meet in our busy days. Without that still space we start spinning. We become driven people, running all over the place without much direction. But with that stillness God can be our gentle guide in everything we think, say, or do.

- Henri Nouwen

The Infinite Value of Life

Some people live long lives, some die very young. Is a long life better than a short life? What truly counts is not the length of our lives but their quality. Jesus was in his early thirties when he was killed. Thérése de Lisieux was in her twenties when she died. Anne Frank was a teenager when she lost her life. But their short lives continue to bear fruit long after their deaths.
A long life is a blessing when it is well lived and leads to gratitude, wisdom, and sanctity. But some people can live truly full lives even when their years are few. As we see so many young people die of cancer and AIDS let us do everything possible to show our friends that, though their lives may be short, they are of infinite value.

- Henri Nouwen

Coming Together in Poverty

There are many forms of poverty: economic poverty, physical poverty, emotional poverty, mental poverty, and spiritual poverty. As long as we relate primarily to each other's wealth, health, stability, intelligence, and soul strength, we cannot develop true community. Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts. Community is the place where our poverty is acknowledged and accepted, not as something we have to learn to cope with as best as we can but as a true source of new life.
Living community in whatever form - family, parish, twelve-step program, or intentional community - challenges us to come together at the place of our poverty, believing that there we can reveal our richness.

- Henri Nouwen

It's Elementary

"In [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight [God] has made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth." (Ephesians 1:7-10 NRSV)

I'm a mystery buff, and I'm crazy about Sherlock Holmes books, movies, and trivia. I guess the attraction lies in trying to detect all the clues Holmes considered so obvious. As he would say to his sidekick, "It's elementary, my dear Watson." Because I love mysteries, I'm intrigued by the clues God has given us about the great mystery of His will. I've become a detective in the Word of God, where I find solutions to the mysteries of the universe.
[We can unlock] some of the mysteries found in God's Word: God's plan for redemption through Christ, His mysterious timetable for the gathering of His people into one, and His rich spiritual inheritance to all believers. These are significant discoveries for all Christians. But the greatest mystery to ponder is not what Christ has done but why. Why would Jesus pay for the penalty of my sin, with His precious blood? Because "Jesus loves me, this I know." It's elementary, my dear.

- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in "Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians"

Not Breaking the Bruised Reeds

Some of us tend to do away with things that are slightly damaged. Instead of repairing them we say: "Well, I don't have time to fix it, I might as well throw it in the garbage can and buy a new one." Often we also treat people this way. We say: "Well, he has a problem with drinking; well, she is quite depressed; well, they have mismanaged their business...we'd better not take the risk of working with them." When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds.
We all are bruised reeds, whether our bruises are visible or not. The compassionate life is the life in which we believe that strength is hidden in weakness and that true community is a fellowship of the weak.

- Henri Nouwen

The Virtue of Flexibility

Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and are standing up again when the storm has calmed down.
Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may easily be broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of the time while remaining solidly anchored in the ground. A humourless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause these issues to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let's be flexible while being deeply rooted.

- Henri Nouwen

An Honest Being-With

Being with a friend in great pain is not easy. It makes us uncomfortable. We do not know what to do or what to say, and we worry about how to respond to what we hear. Our temptation is to say things that come more out of our own fear than out of our care for the person in pain. Sometimes we say things like "Well, you're doing a lot better than yesterday," or "You will soon be your old self again," or "I'm sure you will get over this." But often we know that what we're saying is not true, and our friends know it too.
We do not have to play games with each other. We can simply say: "I am your friend, I am happy to be with you." We can say that in words or with touch or with loving silence. Sometimes it is good to say: "You don't have to talk. Just close your eyes. I am here with you, thinking of you, praying for you, loving you."

- Henri Nouwen