“We are called to be fruitful, not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.”…..Henri Nouwen
“Listen. Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”.....Mary Oliver
“I often say that I don’t worry about the meaning of life. I can’t handle that big stuff. What concerns me is the meaning in life, day by day, hour by hour, while I’m doing whatever it is that I do. What counts is not what I do, but how I think about myself while I’m doing it”….. Robert Fulgham
Most of my literary digestion is books written by priests, preachers, and men whose lives rest in a claimed call of God. All may not actually fill positions within the Church. All, however, pursue the same “truth”, follow the same Savior, consider life from a Biblical perspective; and so any perusal of their thoughts produces “nuggets”, statements I underline, collect and amass separately for later consideration. God’s Word, in my opinion, is more than a leather-bound “authorized version” that has been set in concrete, this translation better than your translation, our theology better than your “stink’n think’n”. Rather the Book, it seems to me, is an oasis, a well from which flows “life”, the Holy Spirit using it as a rod and staff to direct my way, an explanation concerning my stumble down the path, a dose of medicine for that which ails me, a drink of water to quench my thirst. It’s where I go with my day-by-day existence, all my questions, wounds, fatigue, and thoughts accumulated in the journey. Quotes like the above are part of the package, even if some have come to me from men and women who, seemingly, do or did not know Him as He has come to me. If there is a bit of room for discussion with Henri Nouwen as to what he means by the first part of his declaration, his final sentence speaks volumes to me. Mary Oliver’s query gives me pause, my being over forty years in this commitment to Christ already not negating a need to examine my position. Robert Fulghum is a strange individual, an author whose humor amuses me, whose “religiosity” blows my mind, but whose offerings often “stir the pot”, the meaning both of and in life worthy of investigation. Where it all leaves me this morning is swimming deep in the ethereal realm with our visit to the Detention Center just two days away. Time to get up from here and take a long walk with Him……
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