Several people at my church (including a couple of my church’s pastors) have become huge fans of Henri Nouwen’s writings. And I can certainly see why. Here are a couple of his quotes that I think are pretty inspiring, ones that have sort of pushed me out of my current comfort zone lately. I thought I’d share…
(My thoughts in red/Henri Nouwen’s quote in black.)
First quotation…
“Our emotional lives move up and down constantly. Sometimes we experience great mood swings: from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos.”
I relate to those words so much right now. With Elias on the way, my heart is filled joy and excitement and some fear. Other happenings in my life right now have caused me to feel a good deal of anxiety and sadness… balancing those two realities has been exhausting and emotionally draining.
“A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings. Mostly we have little control over these changes. It seems that they happen to us rather than being created by us.”
For me, it’s both. While some of the craziness of life just happens and I have no control over it, I am also quite aware that I create drama. Ever since I was little, I’ve been the kind of person who feels everything. Very little in life just hits me on the surface, most of it buries itself in my heart and soul and becomes a part of who I am in some ways. I’ll be honest, I don’t love easily, but when I do, it is deep and passionate and can be messy sometimes. Hence, the drama…
“Thus it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us. As we feel our emotions shift we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are. We are and remain, whatever our moods, God’s beloved children.
Isn’t this a fantastic thought? And sometimes I believe it’s true, that I am fully loved by God no matter what my emotions are doing in the moment. But too often, I can’t “feel” it, and it’s so easy for me to allow that reality speak with more volume in my life than the truth that God loves me. I’m too often a contradiction.
Second quotation…
“Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy.”
Can we choose joy? And if so, what does that look like? That’s what I want to know. Is it as easy as simply waking up in the morning and saying to yourself and to God, “I choose to be joyful today.” I guess that’s what the Apostle Paul believed; didn’t he suggest that he was filled will joy in whatever state he was in? Personally, I believe that I have for too long believed that joy is merely an emotion (like happiness), but it can’t simply be that. And when I was a kid, I was taught that JOY had a formula: Jesus first, others second, and yourself last. But really, can it be that simple? Really? And if so, how do you know when those things are in order. I can’t SEE Jesus, putting others in front of yourself can sometimes backfire and hurt like hell, and keeping yourself last seems impossible at times. So I confess, joy eludes me much of the time. Oh, I’m happy some of the time, but I’m far too often not joyful.
“Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it. What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.”
Choosing to believe and hope regardless of my circumstances is what I truly desire. I’m not fully there yet, and I don’t even know what being “fully there” means at the moment… but today, in this moment, I choose to be on the path, to believe that hope exists and that by believing in that joy will come (maybe in the morning).
Forgive me if this post rambles… peace to you this day…
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Matthew,
Nouwen might have some good things to say but he loses every bit of credibility with this quote from late in his life ….
“Today I personally believe that Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her way to God.” (Sabbatical Journey, 51)
To put it bluntly, that makes Nouwen a heretic and there really isn’t any spin a person could put on that quote.
There is absolutely no room for error when it comes to core doctrine. He’s not talking about church carpet color, he’s talking about the supremacy of Jesus Christ. My pastor from my college days was known bring an analogy about pure clean white gloves and a patch of mud. When you run the gloves through the mud you always end up with muddy gloves but you never end up with glovey mud.
And so it is with Truth.
respectfully,
Jud Epting
lol – if you wear white gloves and get them muddy, it doesn’t diminish the fact that the gloves were white before mud came in contact 🙂
i know nothing of that quote; however, nouwen has written some fantastic books – my personal favorite being “Return of the Prodigal Son”, a book of reflections on Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son painting. It had a huge impact on me.
love your blog man – keep it up – that lil’ markie freak cracked me up – and the billboards were priceless.
Brett Ashton
Brett,
Well, go ahead and run your favorite threads through a mud puddle, they’ll still have that original look underneath right?
The point of the analogy is that the mud obscures.
I could run down a whole lot of information on Nouwen that should raise ANY discerning eyebrows. That quote alone, from which he never backed off of, should remove him from being an influence for any Believer, sapling or mature growth.
I encourage you to carefully read 2 Peter 2 and 1 Timothy 1.
I hope you understand the grave nature of what Nouwen is implying in that quote. He is asserting that Jesus was the worst of liars by professing that “no man comes to the father apart from me”.
According to the Scriptures we are to have nothing to do with these false teachers. I am afraid what has become the greatest virtue, tolerance, has trumped that.
-Jud
Jud,
I have to admit that I’m a bit perplexed by your former pastor’s analogy. It seems quite inadequate to explain Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill, where he quotes no scripture at all, but instead utilizes an idol, and the writings of pagan poets and philosophers to point them towards the true God. It seems even less adequate to explain an incarnational Savior who was constantly accused by religious people (like you and me) of being a drunkard and a glutton because of his association with sinners. In some sense, we are all heretics, as none of us can be so arrogant at to claim to possess a perfect understanding of God or His will in our finite, 3 lb. human brains. To be sure, we have confidence in God’s revealed word, but we also are called to humility, even in those convictions, as we are not, nor can we presume to be…God.
AE
Matthew,
I don’t think your words should ever be put in RED! 🙂
I just want to know who’s wearing the white gloves?
Adam,
I’m not assuming to be God here and I could take that on it’s own as a judgemental statement. As I stated above this is perhaps as core as you can get as it comes to Christian Doctrine. This is not a red carpet, sea foam mist carpet issue.
. Nouwen in effect stated that he was a Universalist, that people can claim “their” way to God. Jesus said I am >THE
Now, at this point we have to part ways. You either profess that Jesus was “A” way or Jesus is “THE” way.
This quote alone, as I stated above, should invalidate Nouwen as a quotable source for any Christian, especially a leader in the Church. A good shepherd will not lead his sheep to poisoned wells.
What, Do we need to go filing through tel-evangelist Robert Tilton’s file looking for possible edifying quotes?
-Jud
Jud,
I sincerely didn’t mean to offend you. My comment was in regards to your former pastor’s analogy, not you personally. You and I do have a difference of opinion, which I have no particular need to resolve. I will, however, explain it. You seem to be asserting that for someone to be a quotable source for a Christian, particularly in regards to teaching, they must be correct on all “core” doctrines. I disagree with you on this based on the Biblical material I cited earlier. I would add, that if God is really true, that we would expect glimpses of that truth to crop up in the most unexpected places. Even Caiphis is quoted in the Bible as saying something profoundly true while engaged in condemning Jesus to death (though he was unaware of how deeply true his statement was). If you and I knew each other personally…if we were sitting down sharing a meal, I’d ask you how you differentiate between which doctrines are “core” doctrines and which ones aren’t (besides carpet) with such certainty. My fear is that when we try to have that kind of conversation on the comments section of a blog, where we can’t see each other’s humanity, we tend to demonize our conversation “parnter” and talk past each other instead of engaging in true dialogue. I’m sure neither of us would have any interest in that kind of (non)interaction. Maybe our paths will cross one day and we can discuss it.
Blessings,
AE
Back to the post…. I LOVE Nouwen!! My favorite is Return of the Prodigal Son which was my introduction to Nouwen. Thanks for the post.
Matthew,
I love both Nouwen’s quotes and your commentary. Vigorous conversation always seems to follow anything you write or say–it’s a gift, bro!