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Month: October 2011

The Right *Person at the Right Time: What Character has to do with that Person Who Shows When you Need it.

Published October 29, 2011 by Doug Harrison

Today my friend Patty threatened to send me a card, a care package, or a small car stuffed with clowns to help me endure the couch induced doldrums I have while mending from having my foot improved. Long time friend Matthew happened to call last night as I was mulling over some difficult transitions in some long term relationships. Noah and Camila came over and carved out jack-o-lanterns in a way that I assumed were carving holiday-themed neuro-pathways in their little skulls as well as little hope shaped etches in my cynical soul. Just when you hit a funk or things get dreary, sometimes a little gem cmes your way. These are little jokes, little providences and interventions that make me tilt my head and see I may have been reading life, well, wrong.

Continue ReadingThe Right *Person at the Right Time: What Character has to do with that Person Who Shows When you Need it.

Tohu-Bohu

Greedy with Theology?

Published October 28, 2011 by Doug Harrison

O Lord, thinking about you, being fascinated with theological ideas and discussions, being excited about histories of Christian spirituality and stimulated by thoughts and ideas about prayer and meditation, all of this can be as much an expression of greed as the unruly desire for food, possessions, or power.

Every day I see again that only you can teach me to pray, only you can set my heart at rest, only you can let me dwell in your presence. No book, no idea, no concept or theory will ever bring me close to you unless you yourself are the one who lets these instruments become the way to you.

But Lord, let me at least remain open to your initiative; let me wait patiently and attentively for that hour when you will come and break through all the walls I have erected. Teach me, O Lord, to pray.

-Henri Nouwen, in A Cry for Mercy

Worth Repeating