still in the marketplace

"Be still and acknowledge that I am God" 

(Psalm 46:10).  

These are words to take with us 

in our busy lives.  

We may think about stillness 

in contrast to our noisy world.  

But perhaps we can go further 

and keep an inner stillness 

even while we carry on business, 

teach, work in construction, 

make music, or organise meetings.

It is important to keep a still place 

in the "marketplace."  

This still place

 is where God can dwell 

and speak to us.  

It also is the place from where 

we can speak in a healing way 

to all the people we meet in our busy days. 

Without that still space we start spinning.  

We become driven people, running all over the place 

without much direction.  

But with that stillness 

God can be our gentle guide 

in everything we think, say, or do.

Henri Nouwen

This was a street side market

in Kampala, Uganda

November 2007

colours bright, voices loud

all seemed a bit chaotic

and I thought

but Lord, you've transformed me

from urban

to a quiet country girl

would you then place me back

in the crowds?

I am unsure 

of what Malawi

will bring

but find hope, peace

and challenge

in Henri's words

to learn to carry

the stillness

with me

in me, always

in the still place with Sandy

 

back to stillness

Discipline is the other side of discipleship. 

Discipleship without discipline 

is like waiting to run in the marathon 

without ever practicing. 

Discipline without discipleship 

is like always practicing for the marathon 

but never participating. 

It is important, however, to realize 

that discipline in the spiritual life 

is not the same as discipline in sports. 

Discipline in sports 

is the concentrated effort to master the body 

so that it can obey the mind better. 

Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort 

to create the space and time 

where God can become our master 

and where we can respond freely to God's guidance.

Thus, discipline is the creation of boundaries 

that keep time and space open for God. 

Solitude requires discipline, 

worship requires discipline, 

caring for others requires discipline. 

They all ask us to set apart a time and a place 

where God's gracious presence 

can be acknowledged and responded to.

Henri Nouwen

it was a week of reunion

family memories, laughter, eating

love shared noisy

but no space for stillness

now home again, I open wide 

my arms, my heart

open wide the gates

that the King of glory

may come as He wills

breathing deep the silence

in the quiet with Sandy

 

the hidden life

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.

Henri Nowen

in the hiding and abiding place with Sandy

 

lonely and blind?

In the spiritual life we have to make a distinction between two kinds of loneliness.  In the first loneliness, we are out of touch with God and experience ourselves as anxiously looking for someone or something that can give us a sense of belonging, intimacy, and home.  The second loneliness comes from an intimacy with God that is deeper and greater than our feelings and thoughts can capture.  

We might think of these two kinds of loneliness as two forms of blindness.  The first blindness comes from the absence of light, the second from too much light.   The first loneliness we must try to outgrow with faith and hope. The second  we must be willing to embrace in love.  Henri Nouwen

 

still and silent with Sandy

 

Come back to the quiet

The Spirit works deep within us, so deeply that we cannot always identify its presence. 

The effect of God's spirit is deeper than our thoughts and emotions. 

That is why setting aside a special time and place for prayer is so important. 

Often we do not feel like praying and our minds are distracted. 

The lack of motivation and difficulty focusing

 make us think that our prayer time is useless and wasted time. 

Still, it is very important to remain faithful to these times 

and simply stick with our promise to be with God, 

even if nothing in our minds, hearts, or bodies wants to be there. 

Simple faithfulness in prayer gives the Spirit of God a real chance to work in us, 

to help us be renewed in God's hands and be conformed to God's will. 

During these sacred times and places, we can be touched in deep, hidden, and tender places. 

We can become more fully aware of the divine presence 

and more open to God's guidance as we are led to new places of love.

Henri Nouwen

As I retreated to the silence yesterday at day's dawning, the Lord shared a similar word:

Why keep trying to walk on your own when I promise to lead you?

Come back to our quiet time with open ears, open eyes, open heart, 

for there is much I can show you.

I will direct you.  I will correct you.  

I will guide you in the way you should go.

Often what seems to be a circle is My most effective path.

Now may be just the time to abandon your human reason, 

throw it into the fire of faith.

 

still with Sandy

abiding with Cheryl

 

Sorrow and joy

We all must hold the cups of our lives. As we grow older and become more fully aware of the many sorrows of life - personal failures, family conflicts, disappointments in work and social life, and the many pains surrounding us on the national and international scene - everything within and around us conspires to make us ignore, avoid, suppress, or simply deny these sorrows.  "Look at the sunny side of life and make the best of it," we say to ourselves and hear others say to us.   But when we want to drink the cups of our lives, we need first to hold them, to fully acknowledge what we are living, trusting that by not avoiding but befriending our sorrows we will discover the true joy we are looking for right in the midst of our sorrows.

Henri Nouwen

Taking the time to breathe

hold sorrows with the joy

and live.

 

looking for the still point with Sandy

 

Call to freedom

When you are interiorly free 

you call others to freedom, 

whether you know it or not.  

Freedom attracts wherever it appears.  

A free man or a free woman 

creates a space where others feel safe 

and want to dwell.  

Our world is so full of conditions, 

demands, requirements, and obligations 

that we often wonder what is expected of us.  

But when we meet a truly free person, 

there are no expectations, 

only an invitation to reach into ourselves 

and discover there our own freedom.

Where true inner freedom is, there is God.  

And where God is, there we want to be.

Henri Nouwen

Seeking a still place with Sandy

 

in the marketplace

It is important to keep a still place in the "marketplace."  

This still place is where God can dwell and speak to us.  

It also is the place from where we can speak in a healing way 

to all the people we meet in our busy days.  

Without that still space we start spinning.  

We become driven people, 

running all over the place without much direction.  

But with that stillness 

God can be our gentle guide 

in everything we think, say, or do.

Henri Nouwen

seeking the stillness with Sandy

 

Allowing emptiness

It is very hard to allow emptiness to exist in our lives. 

Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, 

a willingness to let something new and unexpected happen. 

It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance. 

God wants to dwell in our emptiness. 

But as long as we are afraid of God 

and God's actions in our lives, 

it is unlikely that we will offer our emptiness to God. 

Let's pray that we can let go of our fear of God 

and embrace God as the source of all love. 

Henri Nouwen

leaning in to listen with Sandy

 

We need silence

We need silence in our lives. We even desire it. 

But when we enter into silence 

we encounter a lot of inner noises, often so disturbing 

that a busy and distracting life 

seems preferable to a time of silence. 

Two disturbing "noises" present themselves quickly in our silence:

the noise of lust and the noise of anger. 

Lust reveals our many unsatisfied needs, 

anger our many unresolved relationships. 

But lust and anger are very hard to face.

Henri Nouwen

I have indeed had much time for stillness this week 

yet have needed to carve out space for silence

Henri is right, so right.  

The inner voices often shout much louder than the world.

quiet in the stillness with Sandy

 

He will catch us

Trust is the basis of life. 

Without trust, no human being can live. 

Trapeze artists offer a beautiful image of this. 

Flyers have to trust their catchers. 

They can do the most spectacular doubles, 

triples, or quadruples, 

but what finally makes their performance spectacular 

are the catchers who are there for them 

at the right time in the right place.

Much of our lives is flying. 

It is wonderful to fly in the air free as a bird, 

but when God isn't there to catch us, 

all our flying comes to nothing. 

Let's trust in the Great Catcher.

Henri Nouwen

Soaring, surrendered to the wind of His Spirit, 

trusting His everlasting arms.

 

Soaking in stillness with Sandy

abiding with Cheryl

 

Wait with expectation

Waiting patiently for God 

always includes joyful expectation.  

Without expectation 

our waiting can get bogged down in the present.  

When we wait in expectation 

our whole beings are open to be surprised by joy.

It is this joyful expectation of God's coming 

that offers vitality to our lives. 

The expectation of the fulfilment 

of God's promises to us 

is what allows us to pay full attention 

to the road on which we are walking.

Henri Nouwen

being still with Sandy

 

Active expectation

Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, 

actively present to the moment,

 expecting that new things will happen to us, 

new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. 

This, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life 

in a world preoccupied with control. 

Henri Nouwen

I walk slowly, silent 

but for the crackle of leaves underfoot

present in the waiting

active in expectation

surrendering control

radical indeed

and fully His

abiding in the vine with Cheryl

savoring the stillness with Sandy