Month: July 2010 (Page 3 of 4)

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love,

When we come to live in our bodies as a true expression of who we are, we can be present to others. As our body is an integral part of ourselves, we can trust it and listen to its language. That gives us confidence to be free to claim our unique place in life as God’s gift to us. It will also help us to discern with our whole being the value of other people’s experiences and appreciate them without desiring to imitate them.  We won’t need to compare but walk our own unique way, not in isolation but with the awareness that we don’t have to worry whether others are pleased or not. A new spirituality is being born in us and we can trust that it will find shape within us. We may admire other spiritualities practiced by people we admire but they may not fit our unique call. Their experiences do not have to match our own. But we can trust our own unique vocation and allow it to grow deeper and stronger so it can blossom and bless others.  Look at Rembrandt and Gogh. They trusted their vocations and did not allow anyone to lead them astray. They didn’t bend over backwards to please their friends but left humanity with gifts that can heal the minds and hearts of many generations.  Let us trust that we have a unique vocation that is worth claiming and living out faithfully.

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love

Today’s devotional is on acknowledging our powerlessness. We all have those places in our lives that we are powerless. We cannot heal ourselves and every time we try we get discouraged. But we have to start simply by admitting that we can’t cure ourselves in order for God to heal us. That means surrendering to God’s action in us and letting go of our desire to control and that takes trust. The more we relinquish our need to maintain power the more we will get in touch with Him who has the power to heal and guide us. As we get in touch with that divine power, it becomes easier to confess to ourselves and others our basic powerlessness. If we run from where much we have received we are though and distract ourselves, we can’t let ourselves be healed.  Let us picture ourselves as a seed that flourishes by staying in the ground in which it is sown. When we dig up the seed to check if it is growing, it will never bear fruit.  Instead we need to stay there and trust that the soil contains everything we need to grow. This growth takes place even when we don’t feel it. Let us be quiet, acknowledge our powerlessness, and have faith that one day we will know how.

Devotions by Henri Nouwen , The Inner Voice of Love

Today’s devotion is on how to live through pain we may have in our lives.  It could be the pain of not receiving what we need most, a place of emptiness where we feel the absence of love, etc. It is hard back to go back to that place where we are confronted with our wounds and our powerlessness to heal ourselves. We must go to that place of our pain, but only after we have gained some new ground.,,that is when  we begin to know that our emptiness is not the final experience but beyond it is a place where we are being held in love.   As  we are able to trust we can go into the place of our pain with the knowledge in our heart that we have already found the new place and tasted of its fruits. The more roots we have in the new place, the more we can mourn the loss of the old place and let go of the pain that lies there.  We can’t mourn the loss of something that has not died. Still, the old pains, attachments and desires that once meant so much to us need to be buried.  We need to weep over our lost pains to that they can gradually leave us and we can become free to fully live in the new place.

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love

To live a disciplined life is to live in such a way that we only want to be where God is with us. The more deeply we live our spiritual life, the easier it will be to discern the difference between living with God and living without God.  Our great challenge is faithfulness, which must be lived in the choices we make every moment. When we are find ourselves eating, working, playing, speaking or writing no longer for His glory, then we should stop because we are no longer living for the glory of God. The main question should always be whether something is lived with or without God. We have our own inner knowledge to answer that question. When we do something that comes from our need for acceptance, affection and affirmation, and every time we do something that makes these needs grow, we know that we are not with God. These needs won’t be satisfied and will only get bigger. But every time we do something for the glory of God, we will know His peace in our hearts and find rest there. IT is He who holds us safe.

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love

Henri speaks of entering the new country where the Lord dwells there in greater intimacy. It’s like we reach a point in our lives where we are not truly at peace in our old country any more.  He struggled, just as we do, when we leave the old country that has become so familiar. It requires the death of all that is precious to us: influence, success, affection, praise, etc.  It is where we have spent most of our days.  We are asked to trust but it is hard since we have to go to the new country naked and vulnerable. He said it seems that we cross and recross the border and for a time feel joy in the new country. But then fear comes and we long again for what we left behind. But when we go back to the old we find it has lost its charm. May we risk a few more steps in to the new country, trusting that we will feel more comfortable and be willing to stay longer.

Devotions from Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love

God’s love is permanent and we can claim that love as a gift from Him and also give that love to others. When others stop loving us, we don’t have to stop loving them. Maybe on a human level, changes might be necessary, but on the level of the divine, we can remain faithful to this love. Some day we can offer to give gratuitous love that doesn’t ask for anything in return. We can also be free to receive that gratuitous love ourselves.  Often love is offered to us, but we don’t recognize it. We may discard it if we are fixed on receiving it from the same person to whom we gave it.  The paradox of love is that just when we claim ourselves as God’s beloved child, have set boundaries to our love, and contained our needs, we begin to grow into the freedom to give this love without asking for any return.

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love

Henri talks about setting boundaries to our love. When people show us their boundaries by saying they can’t do something for us, we may feel rejected.  We would rather they showed us  love, care, and giving without limit. But we also can’t keep giving to people when they ask for more and more of us or it will leave us feeling exhausted, used, and manipulated. We have to set our own boundaries so we can acknowledge, respect, and even be grateful for the boundaries of others. “The great task is to claim yourself for yourself, so that you can contain your needs within the boundaries of your self and hold them in the presence of those you love. True mutuality in love requires people who possess themselves and who can give to each other while holding on to their own identities.”  By setting our own boundaries to our love, we can give more effectively and be more self-contained with our own needs.

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love

There are many times we don’t “feel” God’s love and may instead feel very empty as Henri did. We may try to find our fulfillment in the world with pleasures, distractions, fantasies etc. but this only causes us to leave the true ROCK of our faith on which our spiritual house is built.  We have to trust that the solid place is to say yes to God’s love even when we don’t feel it. In fact we can go to this place over and over again even after every failure. God has promised we will receive the love we have been searching for and He is faithful to His promise. So let us  stop wandering around and looking elsewhere, and just start trusting and receiving!

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love

We need to be attentive to the inner voice so we can experience new life in freedom and joy.  We must stop seeing ourselves through the eyes of others whom we try desperately to please.  They can not give us our identity and we must let go of all self-made props and trust that God is enough for us. Only when we stop being a pleaser and reclaim our true identity can we be free. Gradually we have to move from crying outward – crying out for people who we think can fulfill our needs – to crying inward to the place where we can let ourselves be held and carried by God. No one person can fulfill all our needs. But the community can hold us and be the human hands that show us God’s faithful love.