Tag: Henri Nouwen

Do Not Be Afraid

I know, that’s what it says, at least 365 references in scripture to admonish us not to be afraid. But seriously?! When the world seems to be falling apart? People are dying from something we can’t seem to stop or understand. People on the margins are losing their means to support themselves and their families. Racial injustice has led to despair and violence to destruction in our cities. Strong countries are preying on the weak and stripping them of their freedoms and autonomy.

How do we, in the midst of all this, not be afraid?

Let me confess that I do not consider myself to be a brave person. Fear is an issue for me, and so anything I have learned regarding it has come as a result of my personal struggle with it. For me, it all comes down to the following question: Do I choose to trust God, who says I do not need to be afraid?

I have found the writings of Henry Nouwen helpful in this struggle.          

“Our fear of illness, death, and the future takes away our freedom and gives our society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises. When we reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with an everlasting love, then oppression, persecution, and even death are unable to control us. All forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us. We come to the knowledge – a knowledge of the heart more than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is rooted in love, and that nothing can separate us from the love of God…”

Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

 we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The hard part for me regarding those verses is that it doesn’t say that if I love and follow God, I get to escape all those bad things.

It says that EVEN IN all those bad things, I can live with the certainty that I am loved by God and, therefore not abandoned. Not only that, but somehow through Him who loves us, we are able to conquer/overcome all those things.

How in the world?!

“To the degree we are dead to the world, we can live creatively in it. To the degree that we have divested ourselves of false belongings, we can live in the midst of turmoil and chaos. And to the degree that we live free of fear, we can move into the heart of danger. Thus, prayer is the basis and source of all action.” Henri Nouwen

In other words, if I am relying on/trusting in anyone or anything in the world around me, that is a false belonging!

The only times and there are painfully few for 50+ years of living that I have been able to push through my fears and be brave in the face of danger- it was because I had an overwhelming sense of being compelled by the love of God.

My experience leads me to conclude as Nouwen did that a life saturated with prayer- conversation, communion, and connection with God is the only way possible to live as an overcomer in a world of fearful things.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We do not get to run away and hide!

We do not get to arm ourselves and defend ourselves against our neighbors! It’s impossible to fulfill Christ’s final command with that mentality! It can’t be “us” against “them” because the THEM is who we are supposed to be baptizing and teaching!

I know that for myself- it is only when I get close enough to hear the heartbeat of God for a broken world that I am not afraid.

I Sing!

In the midst of the raging storms of life,

Battered on all sides by injustice and strife, 

Threatened within by my own fear and doubting, 

I flee for refuge to the shelter of Your wings.

There within the shelter of the Almighty God, I sing.

I sing with a voice that is weak and tearful,

A song from a heart that is trembling and fearful.

You are my Rock, my Fortress, and my Foundation.

You are my Strong and my loving Salvation. 

You are my God, and I rest in You alone.

So, I sing in the shadow of Your wings,

Wrapped in the warmth of love never failing,

Absorbing the strength and peace of Your Presence,

Trusting my ways to Your faithful guidance,

Listening to the heartbeat of God, I sing!

(Meditation on Psalm 61, 62, 63)

Loneliness or Solitude

Much has been said and written in the last few years regarding the concept of “community” in the family of believers. I do not disagree with the principle involved. We need community, fellowship, and to each use our God-given gifts as parts of the whole that makes up the body of Christ.

Somehow, that teaching seems to overlook the fact that for whatever reason some do not have a community. Some are serving where they do not have access to other believers. There are those who in answering the call of God, or for refusing to compromise their convictions for companionship, feel very alone.

Certainly if at all possible, one should seek out other believers as Hebrews 10:24-25(ESV) states, “24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another”.

In the mean time, while you are searching, here are some suggestions to redeem the time of loneliness.

First, turn your moments of aloneness into a garden of solitude. Let God redeem your alone time as an opportunity to focus on and fellowship with Him. Henri Nouwen suggests,

“To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. This requires not only courage but also a strong faith.”[i]

The following is an old German Hymn that expresses this so well.

The Paradise of God

Where the heart of God is resting,

I have found my rest;

Christ who found me in the desert,

Laid me on His breast.

There in deep unhindered fullness

Doth my joy flow free—

On through everlasting ages,

Lord, beholding Thee.

There I find a blessed stillness

In His courts of love;

All below but strife and darkness,

Cloudless peace above.

‘Tis a solitary pathway

To that fair retreat—

Where in deep and sweet communion

Sit I at His feet.

In that glorious isolation,

Loneliness how blest,

From the windy storm and tempest

Have I found my rest.

Learning from Thy lips for ever

All the Father’s heart,

Thou hast, in that joy eternal,

Chosen me my part.

There, where Jesus, Jesus only,

Fills each heart and tongue,

Where Himself is all the radiance

And Himself the song.

Here, who follows Him the nearest,

Needs must walk alone;

There like many seas the chorus,

Praise surrounds the throne.

Here a dark and silent pathway;

In those courts so fair

Countless hosts, yet each beholding

Jesus only, there.

By T. P., (this was all that was listed for the author)

Second, realize that ultimately no one will be able to meet your deep emotional needs fully except the One who made you. Trying to meet those needs through another person leads to a grasping type of neediness. Nouwen says,

“No friend or lover, no husband or wife, no community or commune will be able to put to rest our deepest cravings for unity and wholeness. And by burdening others with these divine expectations, of which we ourselves are only partially aware, we might inhibit the expression of free friendship and love and evoke instead feelings of inadequacy and weakness.”[ii]

Christian writer Beth Moore puts it this way, “God is the only One who is not repelled by the depth and length or our needs”.[iii]

Thirdly, truly realize that you are never alone if you are in relationship with God. Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.

The following is a quote by Elisabeth Elliot relating a thought by Amy Carmichael; both women were well acquainted with loneliness.

“Some of you are perhaps feeling that you are voyaging just now on a moonless sea. Uncertainty surrounds you. There seem to be no signs to follow. Perhaps you feel about to be engulfed by loneliness. There is no one to whom you can speak of your need. Amy Carmichael wrote of such a feeling when, a missionary of 26 (she had to leave where she was and travel to another country). “All along, let us remember, we are not asked to understand, but simply to obey…On July 28, I sailed and as the boat containing my friends moved off from the ship, a chill of loneliness shivered through me. Then like a warm love-clasp came the long-loved lines- ‘And only Heaven is better that to walk with Christ at midnight, over moon-less seas.’ I couldn’t be frightened then. Praise him for the moonless seas- all the better opportunity for proving Him to be indeed the El Shaddai, ‘the God who is Enough.’”

Elisabeth goes on to say, “Let me add my own word of witness to hers and to that of the tens of thousands who have learned that He is indeed Enough. He is not all we would ask for (If we were honest), but it is precisely when we do not have what we would ask for, and only then, that we can perceive His all –sufficiency. It is when the sea is moonless that the Lord has become my Light.”[iv]

God please help me find “Enough” in You today!

[i] Nouwen, Henri J. M. Reaching Out. New York: Doubleday, 1975.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Moore, Beth. Breaking Free Updated Edition. Nashville : LifeWay Press, 2009.

[iv] Elliot, Elisabeth. Keep a quiet heart. Manila: OMF Literature Inc., 1995.