I received the following lines from Henri Nouwen in my usual daily email this morning. the second paragraph particularly caught my attention. "The ups and downs of our spiritual lives depend on our obedience - that is, our attentive listening - to the movements of the Spirit of God within us." I've been on a journey of learning the deep truth of these words in this last season. It is not a simple, nor an easy or painless lesson to learn. And yet, I am slowly beginning to grasp the truths contained within it. I pray that that continues.
The Dynamics of the Spiritual Life
Our emotional lives and our spiritual lives have different dynamics. The ups and downs of our emotional life depend a great deal on our past or present surroundings. We are happy, sad, angry, bored, excited, depressed, loving, caring, hateful, or vengeful because of what happened long ago or what is happening now.
The ups and downs of our spiritual lives depend on our obedience - that is, our attentive listening - to the movements of the Spirit of God within us. Without this listening our spiritual life eventually becomes subject to the windswept waves of our emotions.
Monday, July 28, 2008
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