THE RISK OF LIVING
Moving beyond safety and security
-2 Corinthians 5:17
We can create a very safe world for ourselves. We establish our work routines. Cultivate a few friendships. Develop certain family patterns. Establish our ideas about God and the meaning of life. Maintain certain spiritual disciplines and take on certain commitments. None of these things in themselves need necessarily be inappropriate.
But all these may spring from the doubtful motivation of trying to make for ourselves a safe and secure world. A world which guards us from risks. A world which shelters us from new challenges. A world where the very fabric of our routines not only sustains us, but also anaesthetises us.
The inner life cannot fully develop under these circumstances. Safety is not always a key to growth. But questioning, searching and risk-taking are. Henri Nouwen makes the observation that the questions we raise ‘have to be lived rather than developed intellectually’. In other words, we need to cease taking our world for granted and begin to take our questions into the arena of life by living them out practically. True questioning can only lead to a new doing. Searching can only lead to shattering some of our securities. And risk-taking, when born of a desire to live more truly and authentically, can only lead to new life.
ACTION AND HOPE
Sustaining purposely activity
Acts 2:43-47
Hope is not just a vague feeling that somehow things will become better. Hope involves action, and action is what moves us towards the things we hope for. Hope inspires action and action begins to realise our hopes.
But not all action is helpful our constructive. Action born of frustration or compulsion seldom achieves positive results. While this form of activity may be characterised by initial energy and promise, it quickly fades or becomes sidetracked. Neither frustration nor compulsion are good motivations for the long journey of positive and constructive action.
Action inspired by guilt or duress or action as therapy are not helpful either. Action as therapy, embarked upon to rid us of a sense of guilt, becomes action that soon looks away from achieving the general good. It finally becomes self-seeking and self-serving, for it only looks to what it can do for us.
Action under duress is limited action as well. Before long, resentments will cause us to abandon the things we are made to do and we will begin to subvert the system in some way.
Purposeful action should not spring from frustration, compulsion, guilt or duress. It should come from freedom and hope. And hope will be all the more significant and powerful when the eye of faith can see its final realisation.
Henri Nouwen reminds us that action ‘is not a fearful attempt to restore a broken order’. Such action assumes too much, for we are not sufficiently wise and all-seeing. And we would never be able to sustain our action in order to achieve such a monumental outcome. We would become overwhelmed in the attempt.
Instead, as Nouwen rightly reminds us, action ‘is a joyful assertion that in Christ all order has already been restored’. Such action works out of a final promise, not towards such a promise. It springs from a believed goal, rather than making such a goal believable. Such hope not only inspires our action, but makes it sustainable.
PRAYER AND HOPE
The prayer that leads to partnership.
-Matthew 26:39
We have suggested that solitude has primarily to do with developing a new attentiveness. Thus listening lies at the heart of the practice of solitude. But good listening involves conversation. In conversation what one hears can be questioned, elaborated upon, made more specific and made more applicable to our situation.
This type of conversation highlights one form of prayer. This is not the prayer of adoration, nor that of thanksgiving, nor that of supplication. It is the prayer that probes and looks for greater light. It is the prayer that goes on seeking because it is not satisfied that it has understood all that needs to be grasped.
While Nouwen’s assertion that ‘every prayer is an expression of hope’ is true, the prayer that probes is particularly the prayer of hope. Its hope is not that it expects God to intervene marvellously and to change situations miraculously. Its hope is very different. Its hope lies in gaining a sense of what is on God’s heart. It seeks to understand God’s purposes. It seeks to enter into God’s concerns and obediently to discern his will. It does this because it believes that in doing the will of God our life will find its true purpose and this world will become a better place.
This form of prayer, which probes and question in order to understand more clearly, is the prayer that believes in partnership. It sees us linking our concerns, priorities and activities with God’s intention and this lives in the hope that God’s kingdom will be more fully reflected in our world.
HINDRANCES BECOME A WAY
The creative use of difficulty
-Jame 1:2-4
Creating space for ourselves, learning to be still and entering into solitude serve not only our spiritual development. These disciplines also help us to become our own persons. It is a way in which we can become sure of who we are, what we believe and what we must do. Solitude is a way of self-formation.
Solitude is also a way of making us more resourceful and creative. It can help us to reorient our thinking, so that, in the words of Nouwen, ‘what seems a hindrance becomes a way’. This is not easy. Hindrances and difficulties often frustrate us. They can make us angry at others, and even at God. They make us feel victimised and can drive us to self-doubt and despair. We prefer to side-step difficulties. We feel that we have run out of luck when too many hindrances stare us in the face. We curse fate and we doubt God’s benevolence and care. We seldom do well in difficulty.
This is often due to the fact that we lack inner resources and a strong resolve. We see hindrances and difficulties as ‘just one more thing on our plate’ that we don’t have time for.
And yet we could learn so much if we faced our difficulties. Sometimes difficulties can tell us much about ourselves. They can always tell us something about our world. And they can usually teach us something regarding new ways of responding and acting.
It is difficulty that has inspired some members of the human race to great creativity. It is an important factor in change. It is also the way in which we can become more careful and prayerful. And sometimes, when we take the time to be still and face the difficulties before us, we discover that they were not what they at first seemed- a hindrance – but were in fact a way to new experiences.
PRAYER FRIEND
Nourishing the inner life.
John 15:15
It is a paradox that in this time in history where we have created the megapolis and therefore live in increasingly crowded spaces, we can experience so much loneliness. It is a further paradox that in spite of the major advances in medical technology, we are still so unwell and that, in spite of the communication revolution, we still feel so alienated. We can safely say that whatever we seem to create at a societal level, however good it is, also has negative implications.
But more deeply, our difficulties cannot simply be laid at the feet of society. They also lie within us. And often feel deeply lonely, purposeless, frustrated, misunderstood and unloved. Our brave front and our many achievements don’t ease the pain of our inner poverty.
The enrichment of our inner life is therefore not an optional extra. It is life itself. It will allow us to hold our achievements with open hands in the realization that we are more than our accomplishments. It will also allow us to respond creatively to difficulty because we have wells to draw from that need never be dry.
Prayer is one way of nourishing the inner life. This is so, as Nouwen reminds us, because ‘the praying man is he who comes out of his shelter and not only has the courage to see his own poverty, but also sees that there is no enemy to hide from, only a friend who would like nothing better than to clothe him with his own coat.’
ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES
Sowing good seed for good results
Luke 8:15
We live in a refractory and difficult world. Our experience confirms this. Things do not always work out, despite our careful planning.
This does not mean, however, that everything is random. Some things do follow. When we freely forgive a person who has hurt us we can be sure that we will banish bitterness from our hearts. When we serve others, not out of guilt or compulsion, but out of love, we ourselves will be blessed. When we give, not because we expect to receive, but freely and with a generous heart, we will receive. When we become men and women of prayer, we will grow in spiritual wisdom. When we live in obedience to God’s will, our lives will be fruitful.
Things, however, follow not only in the spiritual realm, but in the practical as well. If we take time for solitude and renewal, we will be refreshed,. If we care for our souls, our bodies will also be blessed.
Henri Nouwen asserts that ‘he who has the day will gain the night as well’. If our day is spent purposefully, the blessing of a good night’s rest will be ours as well. Good actions can have good consequences. Good seed can produce good fruit.
Sadly, we often focus too much on results and not enough on the factors that produce such results. We want to pluck fruit from trees we have not planted and watered. We want to be blessed without walking the road of obedience. We want to experience well-being without caring for our own bodies. We want inner peace without being honest and transparent.
Yet we can have what we want. But this will involve sowing and watering. It will involve laying good foundations. It will involve doing what is right ahead of that which suits us. It may well involve walking the seemingly long road of faith and obedience rather that taking short cut to grasp the promised goal.
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