Henri Nouwen:
Forgiveness, the Cement of Community Life


Community is not possible without the willingness to forgive one another "seventy-seven times" (see Matthew 18:22). Forgiveness is the cement of community life. Forgiveness holds us together through good and bad times, and it allows us to grow in mutual love.

But what is there to forgive or to ask forgiveness for? As people who have hearts that long for perfect love, we have to forgive one another for not being able to give or receive that perfect love in our everyday lives. Our many needs constantly interfere with our desire to be there for the other unconditionally. Our love is always limited by spoken or unspoken conditions. What needs to be forgiven? We need to forgive one another for not being God!

WE MUST LISTEN for God day by day. We must keep an ear open to our neighbor, an ear to our hearts, and a third ear to God. Faith is a journey led by God. We pause, wait, and listen for the Guide who speaks more often than not in a still, small voice that requires careful, patient attention.

- J. Marhsall Jenkins
A Wakeful Faith: Spiritual Practice in the Real World

From p. 69 of A Wakeful Faith: Spiritual Practice in the Real World by J. Marshall Jenkins. Copyright (c) 2000 by J. Marshall Jenkins. Published by The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
copied from Verse and Voice, Sojourners

For Haiti.......
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/

Gifts to support UMCOR's Haiti Relief efforts can be made to Haiti Emergency, UMCOR Advance #418325. Checks can be made to UMCOR with Advance #418325 Haiti Emergency in the memo line. Checks can be put in the church's offering plate or mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087

100% of gifts made to this advance will go to help the people of Haiti.

UMCOR Sager Brown is coordinating a shipment of health kits to provide individuals with basic necessities. Instructions for assembling and shipping health kits are available at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/getconnected/supplies/health-kit/.

Please pray for all of the people affected by the earthquake in Haiti. Thank you for your faithful support for all of God’s children.

The Still, Small Voice of Love

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.

That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."

From the Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation email

KarmaTube: Gandhi's Kingsley Hall Address

KarmaTube: Gandhi's Kingsley Hall Address

iJourney: Receiving Each Day as an Invitation

iJourney: Receiving Each Day as an Invitation

ETERNAL GOD, Give us discerning hearts to recognize the fear in our anger, the muffled hope in our cynicism, and the wounds we carry as weapons. Help us see ourselves as you see us, and love ourselves and others with your gracious love. Amen.

- Melissa Tidwell
Alive Now

By Melissa Tidwell in Alive Now Magazine, January/February 2001, p. 20. Copyright (C) 2001 by The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved

IN ORDER TO LIVE the life God yearns for us to have, we must let go of where we are now and what we love in order to live into the bigger place to which God is calling us.We have to be willing to endure chaos and not know where it will all end in order to experience new life.

- Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd
Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment

From p. 22 of Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment by Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd. Copyright © 2008

THOUGH we are often inhospitable, God keeps coming, and without regard for a designated season is born in mystery where the known and unknown dance on the edge of the miraculous. Angels appear in human disguise, a hallelujah chorus surrounding us in the fields of this common earth we walk on and watch from. Behind paper windows are symbols we don’t yet recognize, and our unlighted candles burst into flame on altars we haven’t acknowledged. Around us the breathing of the animals is slow and deep, their expectant, steady gaze directed toward the rough door that is just beginning to open. Each night, the stars signal a new journey, and all year long God keeps coming.

- Jeanne Lohmann
Alive Now

From “God Keeps Coming” by Jeanne Lohmann in ALIVE NOW(R), November/December 2000, p. 56. Edited by George R. Graham. Copyright © 2000 by The Upper Room

Another good one one to read and ponder by Dan Dick at
http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/

GOD OF NEW BEGINNINGS, guide me through the seasons of the coming year. Whatever joy or hardship I face, let me face it standing with you. Whatever building up or tearing down that I encounter, let me take action under your care. For you are the creator of every season. Amen.

- Beth A. Richardson
The Uncluttered Heart: Making Room for God During Advent and Christmas

From p. 66 of The Uncluttered Heart. Copyright © 2009 The Upper Room