I was very grateful I had a chance meeting with my brother, Charles outside of Checkers this week. I called it a God-moment as I know that if Charles had drove through like I did, we would have been close but never had seen each other. Right as I slowed down to take a lick from my swirl ice cream cone and roll my window up, I looked to the left and there at the take-out window was my brother, Charles. Hi sis, he said, you cant even wait to start eating that ice-cream cone, can you? I was grateful for the God-moment to just see my brother for a few minutes on a day that I needed a friend to talk to. https://youtube/watch?v=Rm5kx3xqmg0 From Henri J.M. Nouwen on gratitude, True spiritual gratitude embraces all of our past, the good as well as the bad events, the joyful as well as the sorrowful moments. From the place where we stand, everything that took place brought us to this place, and we want to remember all of it as part of Gods guidance. That does not mean that all that happened in our past was good but it means that even the bad didnt happen outside the loving presence of God. Jesus own suffering was brought upon Him by the forces of darkness. Still He speaks about his suffering and death as His way to glory. It is very hard to keep bringing all of our past under the light of gratitude. There are so many things about which we feel guilt and shame, so many things we simply wish had never happened. But each time we have the courage to look at the all of it and to look at it as God looks at it, our guilt became a happy guilt and our shame a happy shame because they have brought us to a deeper recognition of Gods mercy, a stronger conviction of Gods guidance and a more radical commitment to a life in Gods service. Once all of our past is remembered in gratitude, we are free to be sent into the world to proclaim good news to others. Just as Peters denial didnt paralyze him but, once forgiven, became a new source of his faithfulness, so can all our failures and betrayals be transformed into gratitude and enable us to become messengers of hope. Here and Now by Henri J.M. Nouwen
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 11:28:11 +0000
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