Actions that bring joy and peace

"When we are committed to do God's will and not our own we soon discover that much of what we do doesn't need to be done by us.  What we are called to do are actions that bring us true joy and peace...  Actions that lead to overwork, exhaustion, and burnout can't praise and glorify God.  What God calls us to do we can do and do well.  When we listen in silence to God's voice and speak with our friends in trust, we will know what we are called to do, and we will do it with a grateful heart."   Henri Nouwen in "Can You Drink the Cup?"

Prayer and acts of service

Can you stand another Nouwen quote?  I read this one this morning from "Compassion."   " Prayer and actiion... can never be seen as contradictory, or mutually exclusive.  Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation.  If prayer leads us into  deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service.  And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us into a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer.  In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering.  In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ."

Nouwen

Sometimes in reading Henri Nouwen, I find myself convicted.  From this morning's reading of "The Only Necessary Thing" on living a prayerful life, I read:    "In a society that seems to be filled with urgencies and emergencies, prayer appears to be an unnatural form of behavior.  Without fully realizing it, we have accepted the idea that 'doing things' is more important than prayer and have come to think of prayer as something for times when there is nothing urgent to do." ...  and ... "Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and fulnerable, proclaiming to ourselaves and to others that without God we can do nothing."     Lord, teach me to let go of my 'to do' list and just bask in your affirming presence.

With Burning Hearts

I started this Henri Nouwen book this morning and it was so good I didn't put it down until I finished it.  It was sooooo good.  I probably underlined HALF the book.  Jesus is talking to the two on the road to Emnaus and they are describing their grief and sense of loss in the death of Jesus.  Here's a brief quote: "Yes, we must mourn our losses.  We cannot talk or act them away, but we can shed tears ocver them and allow ourselves to grieve deeply.  To greive is to allow our losses to tear apart feelings of security and safety and lead us to the painful truth fo our brokenness.  Our grief makes us experience the abyss of our own life in which nothing is settled, clear, or obvious, but everything constantly shifting and changing....  But in the midst of all this pain, there is a strange shocking, yet very surprising voice.  It is the voice of the one who says: 'Blessed are those who mourn; they shall be comforted.'  That's the unexpected news:  there is a blessing hidden in our grief.  Not those who comfort are blessed, but those who mourn!  Somehow, in the midst of our mourning, the first steps of the dance take place.  Somehow, the cries that well up from our losses belong to our songs of gratitude."  I highly recommend the book.  It would preach.

Maundy Thursday

It's a service that is never well-attended except by the faithful few, but I really enjoy the footwashing symbolism and, of course, the time of communion.  We joined with the Tulare group tonight and it was a good service.  The celebration of Easter would not be complete for me without commemorating that special night when Jesus instituted the "New Covenant."

Just thinking -
There are two miracles to celebrate at Easter.  The biggie, of course, is Jesus rising from the dead.  The other miracle is that he wanted to come back to the very people who had betrayed, abandoned, denied and turned on him.  Now that's love.

Gethsemane experience

I just finished yesterday a book called Jesus the Fool, The Mission of the Unconventional Christ, by Michael Frost.  While I reacted negatively not only to the title but to the constant reference to Jesus as a fool (meaning, unique and whimsical by intention, not lack of intelligence), Frost had several very good parable and incident interpretations.  I want to quote one from the last chapter, "Jesus the Fool Who Won't Give Up."
    "If Jesus was always completely certain of the otucome of his life - if he knew everything that was to happen before it happened and if he had no doubt about his final vindication - then where is there room for faith?  How can we talk about the faith of Jesus if he was always aware of the events of every next moment?  If he was completely and thoroughly sure, without the shadow of any doubt, that after his trial, humiliation, torture, and death, he would be resurrected to the right hand of God and all power both in heaven and on earth was to be given to him, there would be no need for him to exercise faith.  And Gethsemane would not make sense.  The events in that garden can only be sensible if there was an element of risk involved.  Faith is risk.  And at Gethsemane, Jesus showed he was faced with a terrible risk - the offering of his own life.
   The fact that he was prepared to, in spite of his fears, go thourgh with his commitment to be sacrificed for our inadequacy makes the cross the supreme symbol of fith.  Not only do we place our faith in it, but we celebrate Jesus' faith that drove him to it. ... His dogged, relentless loyalty was shaken in that small garden, but he didn't fall."
   It's a good reminder for this week, especially.