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

Each one of us must decide to whom we give access to our inner life. If we just allow others to walk in and out according to their needs and desires we may feel tired, irritated, resentful and used.  We might think of ourselves as the lord of our castle and surrounded by a moat. The drawbridge is the only access to the interior of the castle. We can decide when to draw the bridge and when to let it down. Without such power we can become victims of enemies and strangers and will not feel at peace in our castle.  There may be times when we keep our bridge drawn so we can be alone or only with those to whom we feel close. We must not allow ourselves to become public property, where anyone can walk in and out at will. It will cause us to feel we are losing our soul. As we must claim for ourselves the power over our drawbridge, we will be peaceful, joyful, and able to share that with others.

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

Sometimes in our friendships we look for proof and concrete responses of their caring.  But when we really know we are loved by God, we can allow our friends the freedom to respond to our love in their way. They have their own histories and their own ways of receiving love. They may be slower, more cautious, and more hesitant.  Even though their way may be unusual and different  than our way, it is authentic for them. We can trust that those who love us want to show their love in a real way, even when their choices of time, place and form are different from ours.  We need to allow our friends the freedom to respond as they want and are able to. May we let their receiving be as free as our own giving. Then we will become capable of feeling true gratitude.

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

Today’s devotion is on friendship and the importance to seek friends to whom we can relate from our center, the place where we know we are deeply loved. Friendships happen when we accept ourselves as deeply loved and then are able to love others in a non-possessive way. “Real friends find their inner correspondence where both know the love of God. Their spirit speaks to spirit and heart to heart.”  True friendships are lasting because true love is eternal. This kind of friendship is a gift from God and is stronger than death. In this sense, true friendships continue beyond the boundary of death.  When Jesus died, the disciples’ friendship with Him did not diminish but it grew because the Holy Spirit made it more intimate than before his death. .When we have loved deeply, that love can grow even after the person has died.  Every true friendship has no end for there is a communion of saints that exists among those, living and dead, who have truly loved God and one another.  Those whom we have loved deeply and have died also live on in us. 

Let us remember that the love we give and receive is a reality that will lead us closer to God as well as to those whom God has given us to love!

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

Within each of us there is a lamb and a lion. Our lion is our adult, aggressive self. It is our initiative-taking and decision-making self. But we also have a lamb in us which is the fearful, vulnerable part of us that needs affection, support, affirmation and nurturing.  Spiritual maturity is the ability to let the lamb and lion lie down together. If we pay attention to only our lion, we will find ourselves overextended and exhausted. When we take notice only of our lamb, we will easily become a victim of our need to for other people’s attention.  We need to fully claim both our lion and our lamb.  Then we can act assertively without denying our own needs. We can ask for affection and care without betraying our talent to offer leadership. As we develop our identity as a child of God, it doesn’t mean we give up our responsibilities. The more we feel safe as a child of God, the freer we will be to claim our mission in the world and also to open ourselves to letting our deepest need be met. May our lion and lamb freely and fearlessly lie down together.   On our bedside table we have a ceramic lion with a lamb resting in the circle of his paws as a reminder of this!

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

Just because we are Christians doesn’t mean we are free from temptations. We might have times we are so blessed and so in God that we forget we are still living in this world of powers and principalities. But we need protection lest we be pulled out of our true self and experience the darkness around us. Sometimes we are pulled out before we are even aware of it so we need to be alert. As fellow Christians we need to support, protect, and hold one another close to God’s heart. We belong to a minority in a large, hostile world. As we become more aware of our true identity as a child of God, we will also see more clearly the many forces that try to pull us away from God. We may have the sudden feeling that all things spiritually are false substitutes for the real things of life, or that prayer is fantasy, that God is just a word etc. We can’t trust these thoughts and feelings when we are pulled out of true selves. We must return quickly to our true place and pay no attention to what tricked us. We need to protect our innocence by holding on to the truth: we are a child of God and deeply loved!

Devotions from Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love, is about knowing that we are truly loved.
Some people have had such oppressed lives that they need help to break free and to find their true selves. Sometimes they may need permission to explode: to let out their deepest emotions!  Henri discovered that the more love he could take in and hold on to, the less fearful he became. We too will find that as we know we are loved we can speak more simply, more directly and more freely about what is important to us, without fear of other people’s reactions.  We can also use fewer words, trusting that we can communicate our true selves even when we do not use a lot of words. The disciples had a sense of Jesus loving presence as they went out to preach. They had been with him and eaten with him and lived in connectedness with Him. It was from this connectedness that they could speak out with simplicity and directness, unafraid of being misunderstood or rejected.  The more we come to know ourselves-spirit, mind, and body- as truly loved, the freer we will be to proclaim the good news.

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

Today’s devotion is on accepting our true identity as a child of God. Once we have settled in it, we can live in a world that gives us much joy as well as pain.  Our true identity that makes us free is anchored beyond all human praise and blame.  We belong to God and we are sent out into the world.  But we need guidance and people who can keep us anchored in our true identity. The temptation is to disconnect from that deep place in us where God dwells and to let ourselves be drowned in the praise or blame of the world.  But only God can fully dwell in that deepest place in us and give us a sense of safety. We must guard against the danger that we will let others run away with our sacred center.  It takes time to fully reconnect our deep hidden self with our public self, but gradually we become more fully who we truly are as a child of God. That is where our freedom lies.

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

Today’s devotional is on the unique presence we each have in our community.  Different people have different ways of being present to their community and it is important that we know and claim our way.  Once we have this inner knowledge, it will help us decide what to do and what to let go of, what to say and what to remain silent about etc.  When we get exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed, or run down, our body is saying that we are doing things that are none of our business. God does not require of us what is beyond our ability and leads us away from Him. God wants us to live for others and to live that presence well. Doing so might include suffering and fatigue but none of this would ever pull us away from our deepest self and God.  When we find our place in our community, we can be deeply present to the people around us and speak words that come from God in us. We need time and space to let His vision for us mature in us and become an integral part of our being.

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

Today’s devotion is about the importance of allowing ourselves to be fully received. Giving ourselves to others without expecting anything in return is only possible when we know that we are unconditionally loved ( fully received) by God.

Every time we discover that we expect something in return for what we have given or are disappointed when nothing comes back to us, then we are made aware that we have not yet fully received.

Giving without wanting anything in return is trusting that all our needs will be provided for by the One who loves us unconditionally.  A lot of giving and receiving is more out of need than out of trust. What looks like a generous act may really be manipulation or a cry for affection or support. When we know ourselves as fully loved, we will be able to give according to the other person’s capacity to receive, and we will be able to receive according to the other person’s capacity to give. We will be grateful for what is given us without clinging to it, and joyful for what we can give without bragging about it. We will be a free person, free to love.