I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead to live in hope. I am finding that when I choose to let go of my sometimes petty and superficial wishes and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in the eyes of God something really new, something beyond my own expectations begins to happen for me. (Finding My Way Home)
Interpretation
Letting go of superficial desires and embracing hope leads to profound changes in life.
In this quote, Henri Nouwen emphasizes the importance of releasing our trivial wishes and placing our trust in a higher purpose. By shifting our focus from fleeting desires to a deeper sense of hope, we open ourselves to transformative experiences that align with the belief that our lives hold inherent value and significance.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the value of hope over material desires.
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering – for us. And calling us to share in God’s suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
I've always been optimistic. And I have a feeling that it happened because of going to all those movies with my grandmother in the '40s because there was no cynicism.
A man who wills commands something within himself that renders obedience, or that he believes renders obedience.
It is awfully hard work doing nothing.
Who knows himself a braggart, Let him fear this; for it will come to pass That every braggart will be found an ass.
All promise outruns performance.
Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.