Good morning…
A group of us from our extended church family have been widening our sense of community as we go to PAWkids on Monday afternoons to help young students with their homework, one-on-one. When I read Nouwen’s meditation yesterday morning, my soul nodded in agreement before jumping with joy.
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DAILY MEDITATION | NOVEMBER 18, 2021 – Recognizing the Gifts of the Poor by Henri Nouwen
I am deeply convinced that we can only work for the liberation of the people if we love them deeply. And we can only love them deeply when we recognize their gift to us. I am deeply convinced of the importance of social change and of the necessity to work hard to bring about a just and peaceful society. But I also feel that this task can only be done in a spirit of gratitude and joy. That is why I am more and more convinced of the importance to live in the Spirit of the Risen Christ. Christ is the God who entered into solidarity with our struggles and became truly a God-with-us. It was this solidarity that led him to the cross by which he overcame death and evil. Believing in the Risen Lord means believing that in and through Christ the evil one has been overcome and that death no longer is the final word. Working for social change, to me, means to make visible in time and place that which has already been accomplished in principle by God himself. This makes it possible to struggle for a better world not out of frustration, resentment, anger, or self-righteousness, but out of care, love, forgiveness, and gratitude.
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Week after week, I am so grateful for the gifts we freely receive and freely give in the Grove Park neighborhood of Atlanta. We are building authentic friendships born from the loving Spirit of the Risen Christ. Deep. Mutual. Life-giving for all. Together we are making visible, in this time and in this place, the liberation which has already been accomplished by our living LORD.
We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him (Hebrews 12:2a, ERV). As we widen our sense of loving community, we live into the joy that Jesus was envisioning.
Most days when I visit PAWkids, to tutor or for our therapeutic community groups, I spend time in my private prayer space in the attic. I often make a “sand tray world” to help visualize my prayer. Here is a photo of the small symbols I joined in the sand this week.
“Here is the sand tray world I prayerfully built in the attic with God today,” I texted PAWkids founder, LaTonya Gates, and her talented daughter Larenzia. “Out of our shared brokenness we surrender our whole hearts at the cross, and over time our new self rises up, colorful and one of a kind.”
“This is my deepest prayer,” I shared with my special friends. “God, out of our surrendered hearts, please rise up resurrection power as the love of Christ expands peacefully through us into our hungry world.”
…Sue…
P.S. If you live in the Atlanta area and you would like to join in the joy of tutoring with us at PAWkids from 4:20 to 6:00 pm on Mondays, please touch on the link below and email me directly.
