I pray this speaks about someone in your life...I know it has in mine!
Friends as Reminders of Our Truth
Sometimes our sorrow overwhelms us so much that we no longer can believe in joy. Life just seems a cup filled to the brim with war, violence, rejection, loneliness, and endless disappointments.
At times like this we need our friends to remind us that crushed grapes can produce tasty wine. It might be hard for us to trust that any joy can come from our sorrow, but when we start taking steps in the direction of our friends' advice, even when we ourselves are not yet able to feel the truth of what they say, the joy that seemed to be lost may be found again and our sorrow may become livable.
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Loved the Henri Nouwen meditation -- so true. I hope everyone has a chance to read it and think about it for next week.
ReplyDeleteThe quote on the relationship between forgiveness and prayer is as ollows (corrected!): "Forgiveness, in the teaching of Jesus, becomes the sole condition for prayer." (This is also by Nouwen -- he makes us think!). That should spark some discussion.
The third quote on the hand-out gives me pause too -- that "forgiveness is not doing something but discovering." Hmmm.
Chew on these for next week.
'Forgiveness is not in DOING but discovering'
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THIS. SO TRUE. SO REAL.
I was just telling a friend that when I go through that discovery process - pay attention to those cues - then I always end up with forgiveness in my lap...I guess you could call it God's cues to pay attention. Pay attention...haha...where have I heard that before??
Thanks for this, Kathy.