April 21, 2024 - INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE HEART

From Dare To Journey with Henri Nouwen

WHEN “THE LESS” NOT “THE MUCH” IS ACHIEVED

Seeking Genuine Inner Resources

We want to achieve much, but sometime produce little. This may be particularly the case when we set out to be more patient, loving, caring, and gentle with others. We may well find that the more we try, the less successful we seem to be. Now, clearly there is nothing wrong with our desire to be more constructive and helpful in our relationship with others. But there may well be something wrong with the way we go about these tasks.

One of the least helpful ways is to try to prove something to ourselves. Our attempts to be more loving thus become the spiritual barometer by which we check our rating with God. When we do this, our desire to love others becomes confused with our own needs and our own agenda.

The solution is never to attempt to love others more so that we can feel better about ourselves. This is doing things back to front. The way forward is to know we are loved by God and appreciated by others and, from this center of security, to seek to be more caring and compassionate.

Nouwen notes that “a forgiven person forgives”. Equally so, a loved person loves. And a nurtured person cares. The challenge is never simply to try to more loving, but to seek a deeper inner resource from which our love can flow.