As I was walking over to the church this morning, my mind was preoccupied with the words from my morning devotional. Although I had read them a little while ago, I could not shake the impact that they had upon me. So I wanted to share them with you and see if together we can learn something. In today’s entry from The Henri Nouwen Society, I read these words that I want to share with you and invite you to consider:
"Today I imagined my inner self as a place crowded with pins and needles. How could I receive anyone in my prayer when there is no place for them to be free and relaxed? When I am still so full of preoccupations, jealousies, angry feelings, anyone who enters will get hurt. I had a very vivid realization that I must create some free space in my innermost self so that I may indeed invite others to enter and be healed.”
As quickly as I read this paragraph, I found my mind racing forward into new possibilities and lines of thinking. These words made me wonder:
How many places, or moments, in your day do you consider yourself to be "crowded with pins and needles?”
How can we live faithfully as the church when there is no place in our spirit’s where peace and relaxation are free-flowing and easy to embrace?
Certainly, I understand that there exists a great many things in our current culture that cause our anxiety levels to rise. If you watch the news or spend time on social media then you understand how prevalent these feelings are. There is absolutely no part of my heart that wants to be anxious or jealous or upset. But yet, on a rainy morning as I sip my coffee and study God’s word, I find myself gravitating back to the things that upset and challenge my heart.
I begin to wonder about systemic issues that are surfacing around me. I consider how can I become a better Christian and offer peace and love to others when large segments of the population exist to whip us into a frenzy and drive us toward disunity and upheaval !? How can I apply the words of Psalm 46:10 and “be still” when so much that I come into contact with daily does not apply or seek this posture?
And so as I fold up my umbrella and leave it on the porch, as I sit down and begin to think about these questions and what would be required of me attempt to address them positively, Nouwen’s words challenge me to create deliberate space in my life where I can be an instrument of healing in a world that is hurt and seeks to gain retribution for those very same hurts.
I wonder today again, can you identify the place in your heart where you are “crowded with pins and needles?” Can you taken that place of your heart back to God and let God heal it so the you can help to heal other?
Blessings
Rev. Derek
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