We just have to recognize life for what it is: a gift to be grateful for, not a property to cling to, hoard, or defend.
Interpretation
Life is a precious gift that should be appreciated, not something to be possessively held onto.
This quote by Henri Nouwen suggests that life is meant to be a cherished gift, urging us to cultivate gratitude for our experiences rather than treating life as an object to be owned or controlled. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing the transient nature of life and encourages a mindset of appreciation over possessiveness, inviting us to embrace the present moment and the beauty it brings.
In practice
During a motivational speech about valuing experiences over possessions.
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 β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs 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.
People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.
When I find that so much of my life has stolen unprofitably away, and that I can descry by retrospection scarcely a few single days properly and vigorously employed, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try, because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal. I try, in humble hope of the help of God.
You might get nothing out of it at all except a beautiful, long life where all you did was follow your gorgeous curiosity. And that should be enough too.
Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.
Don't cry, I'm sorry to have deceived you so much, but that's how life is.
Everything was usual. That was depression: being stuck, clinging to an out-of-date version of oneself.
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