09/12/2021 – “The Discipline of Prayer” by Henri Nouwen
Good morning! I wanted to share this with y’all from Henri J.M. Nouwen’s 1994 book entitled: “Here and Now – Living in the Spirit” (ISBN reference # 0-8245-1409-2). I am taking this directly from “The Discipline of Prayer” section on page 136 under chapter XI – “Who We Are”.
I would describe Henri as a Christian warrior that “broke out of the box”,exemplifying how our spirititual growth path through life is not the shortest distance between two points. Here is a short section speaking to his parental influence from his biography: “When Nouwen was older, he spoke about the two voices that he heard as a child. The voice of his mother praised and affirmed him as he was, and called him always to love Jesus. The voice of his father, proud of his accomplishments, encouraged and challenged him to become a better and more successful person. Nouwen commented that he lived the first part of his life listening more to the voice of his father, and the second listening more to the voice of his mother.”
Here is the link to Henri’s biography that I encourage you to come back to after reading the passage:
Now to our passage – “The Discipline of Prayer”:
“One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are and waste a lot of time and energy to prove what doesn’t need to be proved. We are God’s beloved daughters and sons, not because we have proven ourselves worthy of God’s love, but because God freely chose us. It is very hard to stay in touch with our true identity because thsoe who want our money, our time, and our energy profit more from our insecurity and fears than from our inner freedom.
We therefore, need discipline to keep living truthfully and not succumb to the endless seductions of our society. Wherever we are there are voices saying: ‘Go here, go there, buy this, buy that, get to know him, get to know her, don’t miss this, don’t miss that,” and so on and on. These voices keep pulling us away from that soft gentle voice that speaks in the center of our being: ‘You are my beloved, on you my favor rests.’
Prayer is the discipline of listening to that voice of love. Jesus spent many nights in prayer listening to the voice that had spoken to him at the Jordan River. We too must pray. Without prayer, ;we become deaf to voice of love and become confused by the many competing voices asking for our attention. How difficult this is! When we sit down for half an hour – without talking to someone, listening to music, watching television, or reading a book — and try to become very still, we often find ourselves so overwhelmed by our noicsy inner voices that we can hardly wait to get busy and distracted again. Our inner life often looks like a banana tree full of jumping monkeys! But when we decide not to run away and stay focused, these monkeys may gradually go away because of lack of attention, and the soft gentle voice calling us the beloved may gradually make itself heard. Much of the Jesus’ prayer took place during the night. ‘Night’ means more than the absence of teh sun. It also means the absence of satisfying feelings or enlightening insights. That’s why it is so hard to be faithful. But God is greater than our hearts and minds and keeps calling us the beloved… far beyond all feelings and thoughts.”
Soli Deo Gloria indeed! On that last note of “beyond feelings and thoughts”, it takes me to John 17, a chapter I return to fairly often just to remind myself of the unfathomable love of God. Jesus prayer just before his arrest is broken down into : Prayer for Himself; Prayer for His Disciples; Prayer for Believers. It is sublime, my overused word that I use when I cannot describe the joy in words. The question we should ask ourselves: “Do you really believe that what what you say you believe is really true?” My answer: Yes, that too by the grace of God realizing that “hope that is seen is not hope”, so that too can glorify Him through the tribulation!
Always connected by His grace and through prayer!
Love,
Jimmy