A New Beginning

We have books all over our house, we love books.  Especially now that the kids are reading they're in every room of the house...kids books, Bibles, coloring books, paperback, hardback, some with words i have no idea what they mean....and I'm okay with that because they're my husband's books...but this morning I found a treasure!

In the book The Only Nessary Thing - Living a Prayerful Life,  Henri Nouwen (a Dutch priest and author) saw himself as "vulnerable but beloved child of God, who in communion with the Beloved, knew transformation and salvation."  I want to share with you what I read (pages 85-86).  This seriously, was like, better than my mug of Peets Espresso Forte!

I think this is especially appropriate as we've just gone through the 2012 Elections. I don't know about you, but I found myself anxious and biting my nails.  Why?! That doesn't help anyone (except maybe my kids - they get scratched by my nails when they're longer. I remember one time I was helping my oldest get her pjs on when she was about two years old and I poked her in the eye, I felt so bad!)

I'm excited to see what God does with this new term for our President and while we all have different political views - I hope we can all agree that we serve a bigger God - One that calls us to Him and calls us to pray for our leaders.

Listen.

We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new.  Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life.  imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises.  imagine that we could walk through the new year always, listening to a voice saying to us:  

"I have a gift for you and cant wait for you to see it!"

Imagine.

Is it possible that our imagination can lead us to the truth of our lives?  Yes, it can!  The problem is that we allow our past, which becomes longer and longer each year to say to us:  "you know all; you have seen it all, be realistic; the future will just another repeat of the past.  try to survive it as best you can."  there are many cunning foxes jumping on our shoulders and whispering in our ears the great lie:  "There is nothing new under the sun...don't let yourself be fooled..."

So what are we to do?  First, we must send the foxes back to where they belong:  in their foxholes.  And then we must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resound through the valleys and hills of our life saying:  "let me show you where I live among my people.  My name is 'God-with-you.'  I will wipe away all the tears form you eyes: there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness.  the world of the past has gone" (see Revelation 21:2-5)

We must choose to listen to that voice, and every choice will open us a little more to discover the new life hidden in the moment, waiting eagerly to be born.  

-Here and Now

Henri Nouwen