Discover Your Lost Brother

Holy cow! As I am going through this Lenten devotional by Henri Nouwen I am amazed at how pertinent some of his devotions are to what's going on today. Read this one.

"Rediscover your enemy as your brother or sister. Rediscover that the lost brother or sister your dislike and reject is really your brother or sister within our precious human family. God invites us to discover ways to be less self-righteous, to sit at the same table together, and see each other with welcoming and accepting eyes. Stay close to the weak. I say this because this is the way of God. How did God finally reveal true love for us? By sending his beloved Son to be with us where we are poor. 'I have come for the lost sheep.' God chose the descending way to reveal to us how deeply we are loved, and how we have much love to offer each other. It is such a wonderful sign for us that Jesus chose the 'downwardly mobile' way to be one with us at the same table. This is God's way, lived in the flesh by Jesus, and given for our consolation and example. 'I'm sent into the world by the Father to bring Good News to the poor.' How very beautiful, very mysterious, and very true!"
-Henri Nouwen

Reread that first paragraph again. Rediscover your enemy as your brother or sister. As the political climate continues to deteriorate (I'm not making a comment on specific legislation) and the two sides hurl insults one wonders where the humility and idea of serving others has gone. And before we are too quick to point fingers at our elected representatives we must remember to take a look at ourselves. Where in our lives are our enemies? Have we cut them off and cast them aside? Have we left no opening for forgiveness or reconciliation? Have we given up the possibility that maybe they are more like us than we'd like to admit? Should we take a hard look at ourselves and see how we're living our lives before we condemn others? I think we should. If we want to move forward with anything we need to be willing to forgive, to have honest dialogue, and most importantly give up our self-righteous attitude that we're always right and whoever disagrees is always wrong. That attitude sure doesn't sound like loving others as Jesus has loved us. We need to remember that we are called to be servants. We need to remember that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Our needs do not always come first. I think Michael Jackson said it best when he said something to the effect that if we want change then we need to start by looking in the mirror.

Love in Return for Love

"God wants us to love God. That is the vulnerability of our God. The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, 'Guilt is the idol hardest to break down.' Guilt may be our idol, especially if we cling to it in our hearts. We mull over past events, somehow hoping that by rethinking them they might become good events. We relive all the feelings around our poor choices, wishing we'd said or done otherwise. But trying to rethink the 'bad' past into a 'good' past not only doesn't work, it makes the guilt greater. It is a very difficult challenge, to let go of the past, because your particular past is yours alone and is true for you. Thus it becomes like an idol that you must carry with you at all times. But the guilt must go, otherwise you are indirectly competing with God. God is saying, 'I have always loved you and I love you now. I want you to receive my love.' And you and I are saying, 'You can't love me, God, because I'm so bad. By thinking about my past I will prove to you that I am beyond forgiveness.'"
-Henri Nouwen

It is never God who prevents us from being loved or feeling the presence of the Spirit. We are the ones who get in the way of that love and that connection. We either convince ourselves that God isn't paying attention to us or that we aren't worthy of God's love. Both scenarios keep us from the relationship that God desires from us. If we could only learn to live in the present. To let the past go and know that God loves us, has loved us, and always will love us. Then we wouldn't be trying to fill that void in our lives with all this stuff. If we could let ourselves be loved then that void would be filled and our relationship with God and the Spirit would grow. We need to get out of our own way. God loves you...all of you...just as you are...deal with it!

Returning to Trust

"In my own life I well know how hard it is for me to trust that I am loved, and to trust that the intimacy I most carve is there for me, I most often live as if I have to earn love, do something noteworthy, and then perhaps I might get something in return. This attitude touches the whole question of what is called in the spiritual life, the 'first love.' Do I really believe that I am loved first, independent of what I do or what I accomplish? This is an important question because as long as I think that what I most need I have to earn, deserve and collect by hard work, I will never get what I most need and desire, which is a love that cannot be earned, but that is freely given. Thus, my return is my willingness to renounce such thoughts and to choose to live more and more form my true identity as a cherished child of God." -Henri Nouwen

If we could only stop trying so hard to earn God's love, we could start living as someone who is already loved deeply by God. We spend so much time trying to earn favor that we get frustrated because we know we aren't good enough and that leads to a sense of despair. If we could only accept that God loves us just as we are, and begin to live our lives as someone who knows they are loved and accepted, we could take that energy wasted trying to get God to love us and put it towards living a grateful life because we're loved. God loves you! Stop trying to earn that love. Instead, accept God's love and do your best to live a life that your loving God would be proud of.