"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6: 24 (New Living Translation)
---------
"Our successes rather than our failures can become our greatest enemy. This occurs not only when we have to compromise in order to achieve our successes. It occurs more particularly when we become our successes, when our whole life becomes absorbed in what we have achieved and our work merges with the self. As such we will be constantly driven to achieve more. This eventually becomes a destructive force, and we lose ourselves.
Nouwen suggests that in solitude we can "discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts."
The discovery that I am worth more than my successes can be a wonderfully freeing experience. This discovery opens up a space in which I can evaluate, refocus, and be inwardly nourished. In this space I may discover that I need to give more attention to my inner growth, that I need to change aspects of my lifestyle, or that I need to give more attention to those parts of my life that have become neglected.
This discovery will not be without some pain. For to become truer to myself, rather than preoccupied with my successes, will mean learning to live without the intoxication of the praise and affirmation of others."
Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen by Charles Ringma.
No comments:
Post a Comment