Thoughts From Henri Nouwen

Dear Friends,

How does one sustain their spiritual life in a busy, noisy, distracted, pleasure-seeking, and materialistic culture? It’s a question we should all ask at one time or another, since it is by no means an easy task. The world is not neutral to the things of God. It is heavily weighted in the opposite direction. It would rather drag our attention away from God if it is at all possible. The Bible tells us to, “Fix your eyes on Jesus…,” but the world would rather have us fix our eyes on anything but Jesus!

In this regard today’s selection from Henri Nouwen’s short but helpful book, “Making All Things New – An Invitation to the Spiritual Life” gives us some wise pointers. It shows us that which detracts from the "spiritual" life, and offers insights into that which will facilitate it. I pray his words may simply whet your appetite to read more about the causes and cures he lays out in the later chapters. Enjoy.

“One of the most obvious characteristics of our daily lives is that we are busy. Our days are filled with things to do, people to meet, projects to finish, letters to write, calls to make, and appointments to keep. Our lives often seem like overpacked suitcases bursting at the seams… There is always something else that we should have remembered, done, or said. There are always people we did not speak to, write to, or visit. Thus, although we are very busy, we also have a lingering feeling of never really fulfilling our obligations.

The strange thing is, however, that it is very hard not to be busy. Being busy has become a status symbol. People expect us to be busy and to have many things on our minds. Often our friends say to us, “I guess you are busy, as usual,” and mean it as a compliment. They reaffirm the general assumption that it is good to be busy… Being busy and being important often seem to mean the same thing… In our production-oriented society, being busy, having an occupation, has become one of the main ways – if not THE main way – of identifying ourselves. Without an occupation, not just our economic security, but our very identity is endangered. This explains the great fear with which many people face their retirement. After all, who are we when we no longer have an occupation?...

Not only being occupied, but also being preoccupied is highly encouraged by our society. The way in which newspapers, radio, and TV communicate their news to us creates an atmosphere of constant emergency. The excited voices of reporters, the predilection for gruesome accidents, cruel crimes, and perverted behavior, and the hour-to-hour coverage of human misery at home and abroad, slowly engulf us with an all-pervasive sense of impending doom.

On top of all this bad news is the avalanche of advertisements and their insistence that we will miss out on something very important if we do not read this book, see this movie, hear this speaker, or buy this new product. It deepens our restlessness and adds many fabricated preoccupations to the already existing ones. Sometimes it seems as if our society has become dependent on the maintenance of these artificial worries. What would happen if we stopped worrying? If the urge to be entertained so much, buy so much, and to arm ourselves so much, no longer motivated our behavior? Could our society as it is today still function?...

[Yet] Jesus does not respond to our worry-filled way of living by saying that we should not be so busy with worldly affairs. He does not try to pull us away from the many events, activities, and people that make up our lives. He does not tell us that what we do is unimportant, valueless, or useless. Nor does he suggest we should withdraw from our involvements and live quiet and restful lives removed from the struggles of the world. Jesus responds to our worry-filled lives by asking us to shift the point of gravity, to relocate the center of our attention, to change our priorities. Jesus wants us to move from the ‘many things’ to the ‘one necessary thing.’

It is important for us to realize that Jesus in no way wants us to leave our multifaceted world. Rather, he wants us to live in it, but be firmly rooted in the center of all things. Jesus does not speak about a change of activities, a change of contacts, or even a change of pace. He speaks of a change of heart. This change of heart makes everything different, even while everything appears to remain the same. This is the meaning of, ‘set your hearts on his kingdom first…and all these things will be given to you as well.’ What counts is where our hearts are.

When we worry, we have our hearts in the wrong place. Jesus asks us to move our hearts to the center, where all other things fall into place. What is this center? Jesus calls it the kingdom of His Father… A heart set on the Father’s kingdom is a heart set on the spiritual life. To set our hearts on the kingdom, therefore, means to make the life of the Spirit within us, and among us, the center of all we think, say, and do.”

The rest of Nouwen’s book focuses on what will help us get there, and how it will sustain us in one of the most difficult things Jesus calls us to do – “be in the world, but not of it.” Reading the first four paragraphs above might lead some to think of leaving civilization and running to the wilderness – like the Essenes of Qumran, or the Desert Fathers, or those drawn into monastic orders – seeking refuge from the world in an isolated monastery, or an extremely rural and secluded setting.

Yet, the call of Jesus is more missional than that. It is actually harder than that. It calls us to live out the spiritual life in the world where those most caught up in the dysfunction and addictions of culture are most in need of seeing a heart focused on that kingdom which is not of this world. The key is not to escape from the world to the wilderness, but to stay in it and function in the world in a calm, content, loving, joyful, Spirit-filled, God-focused, and God-honoring way.

It can be done, or Jesus would not have called us to do so, Pastor Jeff