HIV and the seminal discovery

All news is good news when it comes to discovering how the HIV virus operates.

clipped from www.int.iol.co.za  Researchers make startling HIV discovery Hamburg - Researchers in Germany have discovered that a protein found in semen makes HIV 100 000 times more virulent than it is alone - thus helping to explain why more than 80 per cent of human-immunodeficiency-virus (HIV) infections are transmitted via sexual intercourse.

The Duzi's death - Creation's marathon

Yesterday I was in a conversation with Allen Goddard the head of ‘A Rocha’ (International Christian environmental group) in South Africa and he quoted a text from Hosea that spoke volumes about South Africa and predicament it is in – Hosea 4: 1-3
1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
because the LORD has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
"There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing, [a] lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Because of this the land mourns, [b]
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea are dying.

The connection between humankind's spiritual dilemma spills out into our human relations and ultimately it destroys the very creation that sustains us. What one might suggest is biblical metaphor is a stark reality especially considering the Duzi river that flows through Pietermaritzburg (a town near Durban South Africa) which has I quote from the ‘Witness’ newspaper “The E.coli count of 29 000 measure in the river before the start of the Duzi canoe Marathon was 3000 higher than the 26000 that is acceptable in a functioning septic tank.” Psalm 19 guides the thinker when he ties the unspoken voice of God in creation with the “Law” or “Way” of God that when embraced brings life to all living things. “Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” Ps 19:11.

Apple Core – Organize better

Without fail the lapse into self assertive ministry is around every corner of our daily dealings. The temptation exists that we forget the workings of God in our daily life. The sense of working out our salvation with ‘fear and trembling’ is no doubt to be taken seriously in the light of our ‘to do’ lists and crammed calendars. The worst of it is that people take second place to projects, administration and important church deliberations. In the mass of the worlds guru’s helping us organize our lives the covenant of heart and soul to God and others needs to be constituted deep in our daily preparations and its out workings.

Cosmic angst

Sometimes the world is perceived as all against me, the feeling that every negative force is networked to trip up, to upset, to disengage vision, to detract, to spoil and corrode the security of who I am and why I am. The overbearing cosmic forces pressing in upon me and the paralysis of action and thought sets in. A breathless moment, a gasp for oxygen a cry for hope. It is the journey of the human soul in quest for spiritual union with God. The journey is not about mundane musings, impotent measures or tired rituals. The dynamics are beyond our domain names and prescribed limitations. Then the Other bursts in and all is changed as the psalmist writes about the transcendence of this God we serve, minister to and love with all our heart, soul and mind -
“In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
7Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
8Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9He bowed the heavens, and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
10He rode on a cherub, and flew;
he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.
11He made darkness his covering around him,
his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
12Out of the brightness before him
there broke through his clouds
hailstones and coals of fire.
13The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice.*
14And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.
15Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16He reached down from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of mighty waters."

Kingdom risks in worship

Reading a prayer by Andrew Wood, I identified with the words "Where can we join you, except in the taking of risks for the sake of the Kingdom?" Why this resonates is that I am doing something different in Lent that will shake up the lazy spiritual bones of the congregation. We are trying some intergenerational worship by bringing the evening worship service into the morning (more traditional) service and hopefully trying to experience the sense of being One in Christ. We are small enough to do it and hopefully we will perceive our worship together differently by the end of it all. It will no doubt ask the questions Jesus asked the first disciples "What are you looking for?" It is never easy stirring thing up like this. You sometimes wake up in a fright wondering if you are doing the right thing and then other times you are absolutely convinced it is what is needed. Oh, we only wish ministry was easy!!

Loving God, where can we find you, but in the lives of those in need? Where can we join you, except in the taking of risks for the sake of the Kingdom? And yet, God of grace, you find us, you join us. In our living and in our praying, you are there. May we keep alert to the possibilities brought to us by your son, Jesus, and ride the wave of your Spirit. Amen.

(Andrew Wood, Southampton District Chair)

South Africa 'Black Out' - A Nando's perspective

In every crisis there lies a laugh. It's the only way to deal with our anger and frustration. Mismanagement is not acceptable regardless its history, but so is the incessant bickering as if we have nothing to do with it. Energy is scarce bro! Save it.

clipped from www.witness.co.za

Prayer, music and meditation the Ignation way - internet resource

This is resource on the internet which I use from time to time. It is a daily means of prayer, biblical meditation and worship that differs from all the rest. You get a sense that you are in a monastic setting with bells, beautiful music, softly spoken voices and the presence of God is almost tangible.

clipped from www.pray-as-you-go.org

The mundane....

The busiest January ever! We have hosted twenty Lutheran’s from ‘Trinity’ in California who have come to build an extension to our mission in Mpophomeni for the Masibumbane mission project. Currently I am in the middle of a January seminar training for student ministers which is hosted regionally as of this year. It is good to be in touch with the education system of the church again. To be stimulated by the guest speakers and having to read the set material for the probationer’s. The John Wesley College is saying a good-bye to Pretoria and will soon be in the heart of Pietermaritzburg just down the road from me. It has caused some heartache but I believe the setup in Pietermaritzburg is conducive and it provides a rich ecumenical environment. I will hopefully get to some blogging in the next week.

Worship resource for lectionary - Good stuff

I am always ready to find another site that shows off new liturgy in contemporary forms that we minister's (pastor's in other parts of the globe) can use from week to week. I have just stumbled over this site and it has free resources that look very handy.

By the way, sorry for the slow blogging. Somebody stole the cables somewhere that link to my DSL line !!! Ja, well, No, fine as we say in sunny South Africa.

clipped from www.worshipconnection.cokesbury.com

'Last Orders' - book about people dealing with grief

As some of you will know I have a fetish for English literature that gets the heart and brain matter ticking. Here is a Booker prize winner that is deep and telling of the human heart in dealing with such matters as grief. Four men, related to the deceased in different ways obey the last wishes of their friend and father to scatter his ashes from the Margate pier. Each chapter is narrated by each of the characters and you get glimpses of how they related to the deceased and how all their lives are interwoven and shaped by each other. I suppose it is just a slice of real life... my favourite.

clipped from www.abebooks.com

Song Select - great Worship resource

If you don't know about this resource you need to know! If you have your CCLI license you can add to it and get access to all the music scores for all the songs downloaded to your PC (or Mac of course). I have found it very helpful moving into a new church and not knowing all the songs I have been able to download the music score and get 'with it' much quicker.

clipped from www.ccli.co.za SongSelect™ Lead Sheets, Lyric Downloads and Sound Samples.

Violence in South Africa

I am shocked this morning to open my newspaper and read the news of a murder of somebody I knew and at whose restaurant I have eaten on numerous occasions. All my love and prayers to her friends and to the young gentlemen who used to work with her. The last time I was at the restaurant we were commiserating about crime as only South African's can. We had just had a burglary and we discussing it with the young waiter and he was telling us how he and Yvonne Cosson were terrified of the murders happening in Ramsgate and they hoped it wouldn't come close to them. It did, in a most brutal way. I am shocked and very sad... God bless Yvonne.

clipped from www.witness.co.za Top KZN French chef brutally murdered, burnt 08 Jan 2008 Dries Liebenberg The charred body of a celebrated chef and restaurateur has been found outside her home at Ramsgate, where she is presumed to have been overpowered while asleep, and brutally murdered.

My Christmas prayer

Lord Jesus Christ we have come this morning for all kinds of reasons, some nobler than others. But, regardless of why we are gathered, there is a deep sense that through the birth of this baby Jesus the world has been made a better place. We want to celebrate today that in the eyes of this child we have seen a great light, a light that matured into a message of hope for so many. Into the most humble of circumstances you approached us - to think that we might sacrifice our lives to one who was born and nursed in a place fit for animals. We celebrate today knowing that you came not for the cause of the powerful but for the hope of the lost and weary. You showed that power comes from another place, a more humble beginning. True influence in this world is to be found in the least expected places. The shepherds a bunch of unclean, illiterates were some of the first to hear the news of this event – it causes us to linger a little longer on the meaning and reason of Christmas. Thank you God, that we don’t find the answers to this life in the dressed up windows of the shopping mall. Thank you God that our peace and rest do not lie in the trappings of wealth. Neither are they to be found in the high places of government or religious institution. We give you thanks that you have undressed the illusions of this world and provided us with the truth of living through this “Son of life.” A Son whose birthday we mark in our calendars each and every year because his birthday was the day our true life began. Be patient with as we unwrap and unbundled this birthday gift today. We are often not quite sure how to handle such a valuable gift. We are not sure whether our surprise and our emotions justify the enormous grace with which this gift has been given. Forgive us when we mishandle this gift at Christmas time. We sometimes keep it wrapped up in glossy paper and ribbons because we are too fearful of the truth beneath. But, we remind ourselves today that you only bring gifts that ultimately bring life and life to the full in the end. Give us the strength and courage to open the gift of Christ in our lives. To allow the truths, principles, and measures of the entire universe become ours. We kneel before you with open gifts today, thank you for loving us to this extent, forgiving to this proportion, for knowing exactly what we have needed for our lives. Jesus the gift of all gifts from the giver of all givers - glory be to your name for ever and ever Amen.

Just an ounce of contrition Zuma!

The last two days I have been feeling rather depressed and I couldn’t work it out. Then I began to talk about the ANC, politics, presidential candidates and the newly appointed leader of the ANC and I realized that behind my consciousness was this sense of grief. It is no doubt misinformed by sensational media hype but the sense of loss was felt and this was all I could pin it on. We all want a super hero to lead us I suppose but there are only a handful of these in the world. The Mandela’s are rare but every so often they arrive in our world and make the impact that lasts for some time. However I don’t think it foolish to long for a leader who I feel proud of, somebody who speaks with an independent voice that assures you that his/her heart is in the right place. To be in power is such a responsibility and the temptations that it brings are sorely evident across our border. I am willing to accept and see through all the weaknesses of humankind but this is made so much easy when the person concerned shows an ounce of contrition and does not rely on a lawyer to clear his name. South Africa we love you – long live the Rainbow nation.

An incarnation story for Christmas - "The Rabbi's gift"

It is a mythical story called “The Rabbi’s gift.” (Author unknown taken from "The different Drum - M.Scott Peck)
The story is about a monastery that had fallen upon hard times. It had once been a great order, but during the persecution in the 17th and 18th centuries all its branches had closed down to such an extent that there were only five monks left in the Main branch. The abbot and four others all over the age of seventy.

In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a little hut that a Rabbi from a nearby town would often use as a place away from everyone to meditate and pray. The abbot was agonizing over the imminent death of his order when it occurred to the abbot that it was time to visit the rabbi for the off chance he could offer any advice that might save the monastery.

The rabbi welcomed the abbot into his hut. But when the abbot explained the purpose of his visit, the rabbi could only commiserate with him. “ I know how it is,” he exclaimed. “The spirit has gone out of the people it is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore.” So the abbot and the rabbi shared their grief together. After reading parts of the Torah and speaking about some deep things the time had come when the abbot had to leave. After embracing each other the abbot asked if the rabbi had anything else he could tell him, no piece of advice to help save his dying order. “No I am sorry, “ the rabbi responded, “ I have not advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.”

When the abbot returned to the monastery his fellow monks gathered around him and asked, “Well what did the rabbi say?” “He couldn’t help,” the abbot answered. “The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving - it was something cryptic like – the Messiah is one of us. I don’t know what he meant.”

In the days and week and months that followed, the old monks pondered this and wondered whether there was any possible significance to the rabbi’s words. The Messiah is on of us ? Could he possibly have meant one of us monks, here at the monastery? If that’s the case, which one? Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, it must be him, he has led us for more than a generation now. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly brother Thomas, he is a holy man. Everyone knows that Thomas is a man of light. He could not have meant Brother Elred? Elred gets cross at times. But come to think of it, even though he is a thorn in the people’s side, when you look back on it, Elred is virtually always right. But surely not brother Philip. Phillip is so passive, a nobody.. But then, he has the gift for somehow always being there when you need him. He just magically appears by your side.
Of course the rabbi didn’t mean ME? I’m just an ordinary person. But suppose he did? Suppose I am the Messiah? O God not me. I couldn’t be that much for You God , could I?

And as they contemplated this situation, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.

It so happened that people still occasionally came to visit the monastery to picnic on its lawns to wander along some of its paths, even now and then go to a chapel to meditate. As the did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed this aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery more frequently to picnic, to play and to pray. They began to bring friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends….. so within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and thanks to the rabbi’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality.

Ordering God's work through Chandler Open Source PIM

It's the end of the year and I am again shuffling through what I should use as my standard personal information manager. I need these things like the church needs a WA! Yes, well, I stumbled over the Chandler project which promises organizational heaven. It's iCal on steroids for Mac uses. Number one it is Open Source (no money!) and secondly it works on Mac, XP, and Linux. You can set up a free server account and you can sync with it via your net connection. The best is anybody else can sync with your calendars from different operating systems in no time. It also has a nifty to-do system that lets you leave things for later and they pop up in so many ours back into your priority to do list etc. Check it out @ http://chandlerproject.org

Microsoft let the Church down

I am venting my utter frustration this morning. I had a DVD to play in Church last night and the laptop with Windows XP would not read the disk. Yesterday afternoon I played it happily on my Macbook with no problem. After realizing the dilemma I raced back home to pick up my wife's PC as my video adaptor for my last ibook does not work on my new Macbook. I got to church and it worked, that is until the time it was meant to play. There was no sound. The guys at the back fiddled for ten minute but to no avail. I had to wing a sermon. Now before you get spiritual on my and tell me there is a lesson in all of this. I must just trash Windows as being the most temperamental OS out there. Aaaaaagh!!!! I need therapy this morning.

Something for the Methodist control freak!

‘Life is not something to be solved, but a mystery to be lived’

This little truth helps the control freak within us to abdicate so that we can appreciate all of life and all its vicissitudes. We look weak when we are not in control. We are afraid of our reputations as leaders when we are not telling people what and how to do things. Fresh in a church I was in one of its first meetings and one elderly church stalwart said, “just tell us what to do and we will do it!” He had no idea of the group process of collective ingenuity or group spirit. The boss had to give the orders. Subsequently I felt like I was a bad leader. Who was this guy who would not give orders? Tight organization is a pet hate of mine. I am at my worst in meetings where the tables are placed in lines one after the other and a head table is up in the front. I know I am going to have a bad time when members of the meeting insist on changing every spelling error in the last minutes. I wonder if we Methodists need to live the mystery a little more (generalization sorry!) and put to death the organizational megalith that dictates our outcomes?

Christmas family likeness

Another Christmas around the corner. A time with people we were born with. A time with people we got involved with through marriage and maybe a time with those friends we accrued through life’s interests. That yearly community that sits around the table with silly coloured hats, crackers and turkey drumsticks. Every year those Christmas photographs look exactly the same. The only differences are issues of weight gain, greying hair, and baldness. A strange community it is. Yours no doubt very different to mine. I sometimes think I can do without it. Just give me sandy beaches, blue sky and a fishing rod ! But, there is something about that group of present swopping folk that reminds me what I look like and where I come from. The group that formed my initial reference point for life, its questions and answers and will no doubt be the ones who will wrap up my end?

AA for everyone

“Recognition of the continuing crisis of alcoholism is part of the genius of AA.” This thought by M. Scott Peck is worth consideration. The perpetual recognition (confession) of ones brokenness in community is medicine for the human condition. The moment we exempt ourselves from the perpetual human lot of unmet dreams, broken promises, habitual ills we will not find our redemption. Peck points out that the success of AA is that there is never a time that you meet without confessing ones weakness. I suppose this is very similar to the Christian who is allowed to bring his/her confessions with them to Church on Sunday. It ties in with the “John the Baptist” text this time of year. We are never to stop confessing our need of help and our dependence on “Spirit and fire” to bring wholeness.

Psychotherapists don't heal!

M. Scott Peck writes some important stuff in his book “The Different Drum – The Creation of True Community, the first step to World peace.” A psychotherapist himself he says, “Experienced psychotherapists usually come to recognize this truth. As neophytes they see it as their task to heal the patient and often believe they succeed in doing so. With experience, however, they realize that they do not have the power to heal. But they also learn that it is within their power to listen to the patient, to accept him or her, to establish a “therapeutic relationship.” So they focus not so much on healing as on making their relationship a safe place where the patient is likely to heal himself.” For all of us minister/lay, young or old, male or female, we need places of safety where we can be ourselves, share our fears, weep our tears and expose our true selves and find in the safe community of others a healing anointment that tells that together we are whole.

Forgotten places

I have just returned from a few days down the South coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal. I enjoy it there, the seas, beaches, lagoons and rivers are places I often frequented in my youth. There is something about land and water when they meet, that line of beauty that roars with the thunderous rhythm of the waves. The rivers open to the white saline tides that push themselves inland. The lagoon, tepid warm where Legavaans (monitor lizard) wink at you as they warm their cold blooded bodies on hot baking stones. To drift up river is to journey to another land, an explorer of old discovering new and exotic life forms. How bizarre to feel an innate fear grip you when floating in uncharted brown muddied waters beneath the canopies of well branched trees. To watch the mullet skip on top of the water afraid of what lurks below. The Cicada’s (Christmas beetle in the R.S.A) rich, shrill music beating the thick humid air. Something sounds in the bushes, I cannot see. These places of natural wonder, our earth, our sea.

Grandmother's funeral today

My wife’s grandmother died. Our weeks holiday interrupted to mourn the death of a generation now gone. She was ready to go, senile and out of character. The indignity of watching her become aggressive and belligerent were not memories one wanted to keep but they are the most current. After her husband died a few years ago all she has been wanting is to go and be with him. She did not want to live any longer. She encouraged family to slowly take away her life’s possessions, one item at a time. There are lists of “what I want” from the expensive crystal to the very last of handbags and brooches. It was as if she was stripped before she died. How difficult it was to go and visit her, she wouldn’t remember you and how easy it was to say, “What’s the point!” The family will gather today to remember her, but we do not mourn her death, that would be a selfish clinging to somebody who had already ‘left the building’ before she died. We instead are remembering how we were with her, we remember our moments and opportunities, some taken some missed. We mourn today the human malady of dying, decaying, the debilitating realization that we are mortal.

Conflict resolution skills

Conflict can either rip us apart or bring healing in and towards greater expressions of Godly community. When leaders of the Church are at logger-heads we are aware that they are not seeing past the things they have idolized. The matters at hand have become the ends in themselves and not the means through which we establish the reign of God. I can foresee that the only true means of embracing conflict is to embrace a deeper prayer life that helps us transcend the finite. Let us neither forget the important work of conflict management studies that provide an excellent way of helping people see beyond themselves and the competitive environment we live in. I stumbled over this site on the internet yesterday, it could be of great help to anybody having to deal with conflict, there are some excellent free resources…. “Conflict Resolution Network.”

Pop the bubble

“When we feel like a small child during the day, our frustrated mind is all too willing to make us into tall and great heroes in our dreaming moments: into victorious heroes admired by all those who do not take us to seriously when we are awake, or into tragic heroes recognized too late by those who criticized us during our life.” Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.

The illusory world of imagination is our joy and our sorrow. The poet ‘builds castles in the air’ entertaining and instructing our hearts as we are carried away by her deeper perceptions of life. The ethereal castles if not understood as such can also become places of hide and seek - bastions of the soul that hide us from the reality of our mortality and other’s suffering. Our dreams, a cinema of pop corn with beginnings and ends, plastic tears and merriment. God’s dreams, a galaxy canvas breathing reality into hearts that touch fire air and water – making a pulse.

Immortality Sucks!

I am still reading Henri Nouwen’s book Reaching Out – The three movements of the spiritual life. For those who are yawing you will be happy to know I am in the last chapters! However, the last section of the book deals with our reaching out to God. He makes an interesting point that our sense of the ‘immortality’ of all things breeds insipid sentimentality and/or violent behaviour. When we mask our relationships with others with the illusion of immortality we create a sentimentality that creates false expectations of human relationships and when shattered brings about depression. Violence is bred when we start to own others, property and material goods as ours for eternity and when this is challenged it brings about violence as we try to perpetuate our ownership of them. Interesting thought, the idea that concepts like eternity and immortality can be as negative as they are positive in our faith journey.

Teacher and Student

“Healing means first of all allowing strangers to become sensitive and obedient to their own stories. Healers, therefore, become students who want to learn, and patients become teachers who want to teach. Just as teacher learn their course material best during the preparation and ordering of their ideas for presentation to students, so patients learn their own story by telling it to a healer who wants to heart it. Healers are hosts who patiently and carefully listen to the story of the suffering strangers. Patients are guests who rediscover their selves by telling their story to the one who offers them a place to stay. In the telling of their stories, strangers befriend not only their host but also their own past.” Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.

Isn’t it great, sharing our story with others who listen? Having the freedom to weave our narrative through current consciousness that interprets the events in new and sometimes predetermined ways. How great it is to have a listener who asks us questions that places another reader in our story. A question or comment that shows the listener listened and found it interesting that we defined it so. Sometimes I am the teacher and other times the student, the secret is never to find myself as only one or the other.

Get a new brain

I have played around with this piece of software for number of years - on and off. It is a management system that works graphically if that makes any sense. I thought I would let you know a few of the software programmes I have found useful. Check it out at Personal Brian.

Free education

“One of the greatest tragedies of our culture is that millions of young people spend many hours, days, weeks and years listening to lectures, reading books and writing papers with a constantly increasing resistance… practically every student perceives his education as a long endless row of obligations to be fulfilled… constantly trying to ‘earn’ credits, degrees and awards… students perceive their teachers more as demanding bosses than as guides in their search for knowledge and understanding.. sometimes teachers speak about love and hate, fear and joy, hope and despair… when we realize that the students themselves have not had the opportunity to make their own experience of love and hate, fear and joy, hope and despair available to themselves and allow their questions be born from their personal source… therefore, [teaching] asks first of all the creation of a space where students and teachers can enter into a fearless communication with each other and allow their respective life experiences to be their primary and most valuable source of growth and maturation.”
Nouwen, Reaching Out.

Nouwen makes an impressive contribution to education in the light of hospitality. The power of creating an environment where the student is not fearful of being honest with his/her questions and sees themselves on a spiritual quest for self knowledge and spiritual growth. We all remember teachers who made our education a drag and those who made it living and vital. Those who listened to the strangest of questions and made everyone feel as though they had a treasure to share. To all teachers who break down the walls of competitive, assignment, mark driven education I salute you.

Generous hospitality

“ I would not have anyone adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each once be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbour’s instead.” Thoreau

We are, or should be ever transforming and thus never be too set on our thinking, theology, or our pat answers. If we believe this, we are co-learners with all we meet, exchanging ideas and learning the differences in others to embrace them or allow them to define our particular perspectives. Let me be honest, I love to think I am right especially amongst the fundamentalists! Most of the time we are aggressive towards divergent views because we are doggedly holding on to our worn out perspectives as if they are tablets of stone. Let us rather be generous with our minds and gracious with others.

Shared property

“The movement from loneliness to solitude is a movement by which we reach out to our innermost being to find there our great healing powers, not as unique property to be defended but as a gift to be shared with all human beings.” Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.

Our inner search is not a solitary delving to separate us from the world around us. Within our struggling with identity, our place in God’s world, and our prayers with the worlds pains and issues we find the gifts of healing that are there to be shared with others.

Divine interruptions

“You know, … my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.” Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.

I love routine, it sometimes becomes my god! And by that I mean it becomes my security. I know that I have certain tasks to achieve in a week and they are sorted out into days, mornings, afternoons and evenings. I feel good when a day goes by and I can say I have achieved my goals. However, the upset when it doesn’t go according to plan! The irritation when I know that the last two days I was interrupted by unplanned meetings, pastoral calamities, and family visits. How important it is for me to realize that just maybe all these interruptions are the things I am called to work with. Instead of squeezing them into times when I can deal with them, to rather see them as the goals of my life. The world cannot be put aside and be dealt with according to my agenda, the world is my agenda!

At peace with others

“Without solitude of heart, our relationships with others easily becomes needy and greedy, sticky and clinging, dependent and sentimental, exploitative and parasitic, because without solitude of heart we cannot experience the others as different from ourselves but only as people who can be used for the fulfillment of our own, often hidden, needs.” Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.

We speak about being at “peace” with ourselves. I think the often painful experience of being faced with who we are in moments of solitude is the matrix of reality that instructs and teaches the soul. That place of being at peace with God alone, is the source of complete fulfillment that transforms how we live our lives out with others. We approach others in unselfish ways, ready to receive them for who they are and not what we want them to be for our sake.

Paths of Solitude

“Instead of running away from our loneliness and trying to forget or deny it, we have to protect it and turn it into a fruitful solitude. To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.” Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.

There is a depth of thought in Henri Nouwen’s books that resonates with the truth. You cannot deny his tug at the very fabric of ones soul. The human makeup is a complex thing and it takes the spiritual genius to simplify it and reach down with poignant precision and mark off the parts that need repair. We are keen to find the solutions for our soul from without and the impression Nouwen makes is that the answer lies buried in the desert of our loneliness. If we are able to confront the pains of our heart in solitude we will unravel the many paths we have taken to substitute loneliness with temporary solutions.

Alone

“ The roots of loneliness are very deep and cannot be touched by optimistic advertisement, substitute love images or social togetherness. They find their food in the suspicion that there is no one who cares and offers love without conditions, and no place where we can be vulnerable without being used.” Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out, pg 26

I wonder whether everybody is lonely? Some people seem to have it all together, the veneer of social smiles, social wit, and public appeal. It is frightening to think that one can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, friends, colleagues, and even in the family. Loneliness is not dispelled because we have found another. I am often lonely, but I quickly fill it up with things that supposedly matter. The result is that loneliness is always with us, a circuitous famine of emptiness woven with festivals of communion. The communion is sweet when experienced, but never to be taken for granted.

Transformed

Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus! A miniature reflection of the ministry of Jesus. Accepted by outcasts, despised by some, and eventually sacrificial to the uttermost. It is a story of the transformation of a person. It is a story about the source of all our societies problems, greed and self aggrandizement. It is a story about the manner in which God can transform corruption into heartfelt generosity. It is the kind of story that cynics cringe to hear in that it gives us hope for the human heart. The power of this story rests in the way Zacchaeus allows God to deal with his misery and loneliness. How often do I reject needy criticism of my life? How many times do I know that if I let another in, I would benefit greatly? Maybe its time we get a better look at this fellow Jesus! Get up a tree and watch the master at work. Who knows he may even invite me home?