Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of prayer and reliance on God for strength and guidance.
Henri Nouwen conveys that true prayer involves humility and vulnerability, recognizing our own limitations and the omnipotence of God. In this state of openness, we declare our dependency on divine strength, suggesting that prayer should be our primary focus as it is in this connection that we find encouragement and courage to face life's challenges.
In practice
During a spiritual retreat, this quote can be shared to emphasize the importance of prayer in personal growth.
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.
Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
We must develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present but as they may become.
What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.
Thought-habits can harden into character. So watch your thoughts.
She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.
Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.
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