Thursday, January 31, 2013

What to Do


What to Do

Suzanne Farnham, et al


Even when a need exists and we are well qualified to meet it, we are not necessarily called to respond to it.... Similarly, simply because a task or undertaking is good to do does not mean that we are called to do it or that we should continue doing it. To be doing what is good can be the greatest obstacle to doing something even better.

Source: Listening Hearts

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Daily Meditation: The Joy of Being Like Others

Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation

Thursday January 31, 2013 


The Joy of Being Like Others

 

At first sight, joy seems to be connected with being different. When you receive a compliment or win an award, you experience the joy of not being the same as others. You are faster, smarter, more beautiful, and it is that difference that brings you joy. But such joy is very temporary. True joy is hidden where we are the same as other people: fragile and mortal. It is the joy of belonging to the human race. It is the joy of being with others as a friend, a companion, a fellow traveler.

 

This is the joy of Jesus, who is Emmanuel: God-with-us.

 

- Henri J. M. Nouwen  

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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

How Will We Respond?


How Will We Respond?

Murphy Davis


More than 30,000 children are dying of hunger today--are we crying out for them? They are under attack--are we angry? Have we met them in our prayers? Have we offered food to anyone who is hungry today? Or did we put it off because we were scheduled to go to a spirituality conference? Or because we were in a meeting talking about Christian unity? ... When our prayer and our action are both rooted in the compassionate heart of God and the grief of the earth and her children, then we are promised that we will bear the fruit of liberation, the flower of courage.

Source: Hospitality Sept. 2008

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Daily Meditation: Choosing Joy

Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation

Wednesday January 30, 2013 

 

Choosing Joy

 

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.

 

What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.

 

- Henri J. M. Nouwen  

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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Partnering With God


Partnering With God

Howard Friend and Jr.


[There are] risks facing the human family, issues to be identified, understood and addressed with immediacy and resolve. I do not hesitate to assume that, to the degree discernment of these issues is accurate and their urgency appropriately assessed, God sees them as urgent as well. Yes, I am daring to conclude that this work, when it is aligned with divine will, always, of course, partial, flawed and incomplete, is the work of God. Those who respond to these issues, by definition, partner with God, are the people of God. In a broad variety of settings--drawn together by mutual concern, gathered by a shared urgency, animated by a common compassion--I stand beside and walk with a broad slice of the human family.

Source: Gifts of an Uncommon Life

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Daily Meditation: Healing Our Memories

Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation

Tuesday January 29, 2013 


Healing Our Memories

 

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. When we forgive a person, the memory of the wound might stay with us for a long time, even throughout our lives. Sometimes we carry the memory in our bodies as a visible sign. But forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. When we forgive our parents for their divorce, our children for their lack of attention, our friends for their unfaithfulness in crisis, our doctors for their ill advice, we no longer have to experience ourselves as the victims of events we had no control over.

 

Forgiveness allows us to claim our own power and not let these events destroy us; it enables them to become events that deepen the wisdom of our hearts. Forgiveness indeed heals memories.

 

- Henri J. M. Nouwen  

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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.
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Monday, January 28, 2013

What Startles Me


What Startles Me

John Perkins


When I am told that the fabric of life and culture as we know it is threatening to unravel, I am not startled because I have seen the tattered remnants of many lives already destroyed by the faceless power of oppression. But what does startle me is the church and the lack of response by the people whom God has called to be salt and light in a decaying world of deepening dusk.

Source: A Quiet Revolution

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Daily Meditation: Forgiving in the Name of God

Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation

Monday January 28, 2013 

 

Forgiving in the Name of God

 

We are all wounded people. Who wounds us? Often those whom we love and those who love us. When we feel rejected, abandoned, abused, manipulated, or violated, it is mostly by people very close to us: our parents, our friends, our spouses, our lovers, our children, our neighbors, our teachers, our pastors. Those who love us wound us too. That's the tragedy of our lives. This is what makes forgiveness from the heart so difficult. It is precisely our hearts that are wounded. We cry out, "You, who I expected to be there for me, you have abandoned me. How can I ever forgive you for that?"

 

Forgiveness often seems impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. The God who lives within us will give us the grace to go beyond our wounded selves and say, "In the Name of God you are forgiven." Let's pray for that grace.

 

- Henri J. M. Nouwen  

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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.
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