Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Darn that Henri

So I read this today from my daily Henri Nouwen email and I did not really like it, more on that after you read it...
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Protecting Our Hiddenness


If indeed the spiritual life is essentially a hidden life, how do we protect this hiddenness in the midst of a very public life? The two most important ways to protect our hiddenness are solitude and poverty. Solitude allows us to be alone with God. There we experience that we belong not to people, not even to those who love us and care for us, but to God and God alone. Poverty is where we experience our own and other people's weakness, limitations, and need for support. To be poor is to be without success, without fame, and without power. But there God chooses to show us God's love.

Both solitude and poverty protect the hiddenness of our lives.

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This is a hard thing for an extrovert who likes stuff to deal with. I like being with people. I like toys and cool stuff. But yet I also know he's right. I keep saying to myself and others, "Do what you know you should and don't do what you know you should not do." Sometimes simple, gentle reminders come across with the force of a big stick. What are you going to do?

yes Lord.

4 comments:

Katherine said...

hey doug, glad to hear things are well with the new van now, and I always love what Henri hsa to say, even when it is hard, he is the unpopular voice of the mystic in the end of the mega church age...which leads me to ask, where do you sign up for his daily email??

Colin Toffelmire said...

Good words Dougie. There is nothing more important for the church than to listen to and be challenged by voices like Nouwen's. Somewhere along the way we started to distinguish between Christian and not Christian based on what you drink and the number of times you say damn in a given day. Nouwen reminds us that what should distinguish the church from the rest of the world has to do with something else completely. Good post brother. Oh, btw, I'm back blogging after a long hiatus of thesis writing. Cheers.

Melissa said...

Yes Henri is once again messing with my head & heart...Thanks Doug.

the Doug said...

Chris,
http://www.henrinouwen.org/
Click on the "Free eLetters" button on the bottom left (ish) portion of the screen.
And for your info I found out about the eletter from: http://randallfriesen.com/