DAILY CHOICES DETERMINE OUR DESTINY

Was looking through some of my Henri Nouwen books this morning.... 

A few years ago I ordered Nouwen's "Return of the Prodigal Son" from Amazon, and when it arrived I was initially disappointed to see the poor condition of the book. It showed a lot of wear since I ordered it "used". From some notes inside the book I learned it was given to a "Craig" by his friend "Phil" fifteen years ago.  Almost every page is marked up and stained. Could be my imagination is on overload, but I gotta' wonder if some of the stains are from reader tears.  

Actually, I have grown to love this messy book, since the condition of the book reflects the message of the book...... in this case the consequence of choices.  

Although Henri died almost 30 years ago he is not forgotten, in part because of choices he made. Check this out: "After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, Nouwen went on to work with mental and physically handicapped people at the Daybreak Community in Canada. 

Wow. Interesting that my recall of everything "Nouwen" stems from his time working in this community, not the two decades of his teaching.  In one of his books Henri uses an interesting illustration.  (I liked the illustration so much I created a simple graphic). Henri writes, "You can look at your life as a large cone that becomes narrower the deeper you go."

"There are many doors in that cone that give you chances to leave the journey. But (hopefully) you have been closing these doors one after the other, allowing yourself to go deeper and deeper as God guides your move in that direction.

Every time you close another door - be it the door of immediate satisfaction, the door of distracting entertainment, the door of busyness, the door of guilt and worry, or the door of self rejection - you commit yourself to go deeper into the heart of God." 

Our pastor said last Sunday that we are better able to help others because of our wounds. Even though Henri Nouwen struggled with a lot of issues he learned to close some of his destructive doors.  And even though he died almost 30 years ago, he is still helping others in 2024.