Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Nouwen Meditation: Every Bit of Life is Touched by a Bit of Death

"Now & Then" Podcast
In this week's episode of "Now & Then", we get to listen to Henri Nouwen's third sermon from the Crystal Cathedral in 1992. Inspiring as always, Henri teaches us about the three disciplines which can help us open a space within to hear God speaking to us.

DAILY MEDITATION | SEPTEMBER 9, 2020
Every Bit of Life is Touched by a Bit of Death
Joy and sadness are as close to each other as the splendid colored leaves of a New England fall to the soberness of barren trees. When you touch the hand of a returning friend, you already know that he will have to leave again. When you are moved by the quiet vastness of a sun-colored ocean, you miss the friend who cannot see the same. Joy and sadness are born at the same time, both arising from such deep places in your heart that you can’t find words to capture your complex emotions.

But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond the limits of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us.
"Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

ISAIAH 40:4,5 (NIV)
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