Ode to Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen has one of my spiritual directors for the last 15 years. I discovered him through my dear spiritual friends--Koby Miller, Anthony Shelton, and John Morley--while I was a Resident Director at Asbury College (those were super formative years for me, Koby, Anthony, John and more on that later). Nouwen has directed me through my semi-compulsive need for approval (The Inner Voice of Love), he has taken me to a place of grace and recognition of my different spiritual selves (The Prodigal Son), he is teaching me how to pastor (The Living Reminder and so many more), and he has given me my theology of ministry (From Community to Ministry-an idea, not a book). Nouwen also has shaped through The Life of the Beloved the so-far most significant season of my spiritual journey--the decade of what I call "Law to Love" of my 20s. I look forward to meeting this man and looking into his eyes and thanking him for his courage to share the intimacies of his spiritual journey with so many.
I am reading Nouwen's primer on spirituality Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life. This is a beautiful little book that speaks with all the simplicity and depth of true Nouwen. This morning I am struck by a few quotes that resonate deeply.

"Truth does not mean an idea, concept or doctrine, but the true relationship".
"What is new is that we are set free from the compulsions of our world and have set our heart on the only necessary thing."
"Setting our hearts on [the kingdom] involves not only serious aspiration but also strong determination. A spiritual life requires human effort. The forces that keep pulling us back into a worry-filled life are from easy to overcome."
"A spiritual discipline, therefore, is the concentrated effort to create some inner and outer space in our lives, where this obedience is practiced."
"But we do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him."

Ah, Henri, you have done it again. This morning you have spoken into the message that I am preparing for Selah, the chapel series I am thinking about for the fall, the idea of paradox that I have been living into, and the reality of discipline and effort in the spiritual life.

Nouwen gets the paradox of the cross: the yoke is easy the burden is light/deny yourself and pick up your cross. He speaks to it in every book and almost every paragraph.

Grateful today for the voice of Henri Nouwen in my life, used by the Spirit, in making all things new.