Reflections on In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen

The central question facing Christian leaders today, I think, is: Are we going to be led? Nouwen rightly points out that the cure to the temptation to relevance is mysticism. The Christian leader must be a mystic rooted in the reality of the living Christ to navigate the waters infested with sharks of ego, power, efficiency and world-success.

The central question for me as I face leadership in the coming future is how can I lead people into a desire for the mystic reality of Christ in the intimacy of the Lover. How can I be a part of the Spirits drawing them to the depths? Year after year, as a pastor, I feel like I am treading water. People seem to make little movement toward desperation and hunger for the transformed life. If they so successfully resist the wooing of the Spirit, what does my leadership stand to offer?

Eternal Summer

Anxiety threatened to steal my day
Oppressed me like the mourning
A freight train whistled
Delivering me to
The eternity of an Indian summer

Longing for eternity

Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee - St. Augustine

Last night as I was praying night prayer with divineoffice.org the beauty of the opening hymn sent me into reverie. I began to think, how often does a song, a scent, a landscape send me into a warm and fuzzy place. Call it nostalgia, call it idyllic dreaming, call it holy longing. What ever it is, it seems to me that these are glimpses of eternity. My soul resonates with these moments because they speak to me in my deepest longing for my home in God.

Ecclesiastes 3:11