Discipleship Letter 95 July 18th, 2010
“Pastoral care means much more than pastoral worries. It means a careful and critical contemplation of the human condition. Through this contemplation, pastors can take away the veil and make visible to themselves and to others the fact that good and evil are not just words but visible realities in the life of everyone” [Henri J. M. Nouwen, Creative Ministry (New York: Image, 2003), p. 70.].
To contemplate is to look beyond what appears on the surface, to unveil what is hidden, and to distinguish between right and wrong. For Christians, we don’t offer care without biblical conviction, for care without biblical conviction is moral corruption.
To contemplate is to look up first and then look around. Martin Luther said, “Here I stand.” He first looked up to see things from the perspective of God, he then looked around and stood firm in spite of the prevalence of cultural morality. There would have no Reformation if Martin Luther did not know what he stood for. If we don’t know what we stand for, not only do we deform ourselves, but also let the world deform us.
A spirit of relativism is the enemy of the church. We must not submit to it. “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or God? Or am I trying to please men? I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10).
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Discipleship Letter 96 July 25th, 2010
“We all need help to stay focused…We need a focus, a point of concentration. This is true in all faith traditions and spiritual practices: by focusing on one thing, we fight distractions. We do not fight distractions by pushing things away; rather, we fight them by focusing on one thing” [Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit (New York: HarperOne, 2010), p. 27.].
Our lives are preoccupied by many things. I always ask myself, “What is the only necessary thing—the one thing—I must keep focused on?” I begin to realize that God doesn’t want me to do too many things. And the sad fact is that I can’t do too many things. Rather, God wants me and you to stay focused on one thing. “So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it” (Phil. 3:15-16 The Message).
What is the one thing we have to stay focused on? We have to fight against aimlessness, which, I think, is a cultural sin for this generation.
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).
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