Nouwen on Authenticity in Friendship

"When we dare to speak from the depths of our heart to the friends God gives us, we will gradually find new freedom within us and courage to live our own sorrows and joys to the full."

Moving with the Whisper

The very nature of God’s created works suggests that He plans, motivates, and even encourages change in His created beings. The earth is full of the evidence of God’s ever-evolving, systematic plan for his creation to progress. This cyclical motion of development all around us suggests that our lives are meant to follow the same pattern.

From a theological standpoint, many would say that the only reason why anything changes is because of the resulting decay of man’s fall. But I don’t agree. I think change comes with purpose, though its purpose can often be difficult to define. Our best chance of moving with the Spirit of God is to loosen our grip on our own future. Ambition can naturally result in planning, and forecasting our own future is often helpful, and in itself, not sinful. But when the plans we’ve created for ourselves become anchors, causing our sails to resist the winds of God’s intentions, then they become barriers to the intentions of the Spirit. But when the prayer “Your will be done” is a fundamental phrase in our prayer life, our plans are never a hindrance, because they’re never beyond the reach of God’s swiftly progressing story of salvation in our lives.

Lately, it seems, change seems to come relentlessly in my spirit.