I was looking through some blog posts and links I put up earlier this year...
Here are some bits and pieces that are poking at my heart this morning:
This cartoon at "The Naked Pastor"
This bit of a poem (from this post):
Bless the darkness around you.
That’s why you’re a poet.
As the night presses inward
you radiate beams of light.
Voznesekií
This line (from this post), written just before I left Malta, which has turned out to be far more deeply true than I could have known:
There are new things springing up within me. Sometimes they scare me, sometimes they excite me. Generally they feel as if they are going to bring both great pain, and great beauty. But I think that all the really beautiful things in life do that.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A Wrestling Silence
A wrestling sort of silence has descended again, and I find myself with few words and the growing longing for the tears to come.
I wrote a dear friend this morning and told her that I was wishing we lived nearer to each other, that I simply wanted to rest my head in her lap and sob… to cry out all of the fear and pain and anger and just rest in her arms, being loved by her and by Jesus.
I’m still struck deeply by the words of others. By the things I’m reading. By books and emails and blog posts and news stories. Will you forgive me if I speak less and let them speak more on my blog for a while?
I need to take some time to be a bit quieter, to restlessly, painfully, let this silence exist inside me for a bit. To strain to hear the voice of Jesus, and to drown out all other voices that accuse and condemn.
I wrote a dear friend this morning and told her that I was wishing we lived nearer to each other, that I simply wanted to rest my head in her lap and sob… to cry out all of the fear and pain and anger and just rest in her arms, being loved by her and by Jesus.
I’m still struck deeply by the words of others. By the things I’m reading. By books and emails and blog posts and news stories. Will you forgive me if I speak less and let them speak more on my blog for a while?
I need to take some time to be a bit quieter, to restlessly, painfully, let this silence exist inside me for a bit. To strain to hear the voice of Jesus, and to drown out all other voices that accuse and condemn.
Flesh Become Word - Henri Nouwen
Flesh Become Word
The word must become flesh, but the flesh also must become word. It is not enough for us, as human beings, just to live. We also must give words to what we are living. If we do not speak what we are living, our lives lose their vitality and creativity. When we see a beautiful view, we search for words to express what we are seeing. When we meet a caring person, we want to speak about that meeting. When we are sorrowful or in great pain, we need to talk about it. When we are surprised by joy, we want to announce it!
Through the word, we appropriate and internalize what we are living. The word makes our experience truly human.
The word must become flesh, but the flesh also must become word. It is not enough for us, as human beings, just to live. We also must give words to what we are living. If we do not speak what we are living, our lives lose their vitality and creativity. When we see a beautiful view, we search for words to express what we are seeing. When we meet a caring person, we want to speak about that meeting. When we are sorrowful or in great pain, we need to talk about it. When we are surprised by joy, we want to announce it!
Through the word, we appropriate and internalize what we are living. The word makes our experience truly human.
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