Good morning…
I feel drawn to share with you the uplifting words from yesterday’s daily devotional sent from the Henri Nouwen Society.
******
Solitude is the Way to Hope by Henri Nouwen
Intuitively, we know that it is important to spend time in solitude. We even start looking forward to this strange period of uselessness. This desire for solitude is often the first sign of prayer, the first indication that the presence of God’s Spirit no longer remains unnoticed. As we empty ourselves of our many worries, we come to know not only with our mind but also with our heart that we never were really alone, that God’s Spirit was with us all along.
Thus we come to understand what Paul writes to the Romans, “Suffering brings patience . . . and patience brings perseverance, and perseverance brings hope, and this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:4–5). In solitude, we come to know the Spirit who has already been given to us.
The pains and struggles we encounter in our solitude thus become the way to hope, because our hope is not based on something that will happen after our sufferings are over, but on the real presence of God’s healing Spirit in the midst of these sufferings. The discipline of solitude allows us gradually to come in touch with this hopeful presence of God in our lives, and allows us also to taste even now the beginnings of the joy and peace that belong to the new heaven and the new earth.
******
“Pay close attention now: I’m creating new heavens and a new earth,” God says through the prophet Isaiah. “All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating: I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight…For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard. Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough…Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God (Isaiah 65:17-24, MSG).
It is interesting to me that God brings us back again this morning to a similar vision of the unity ending yesterday’s morning message, Children Will Lead Us. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6, NIV).
As our individual and collective suffering is transformed by the discipline of solitude, we begin to feel the love of God poured into our hearts and we come to know the Spirit who has already been given to us. We gradually begin to taste, even amid our troubles, the beginnings of the joy and peace that belong to the new heaven and the new earth. Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea (no longer division in the land). I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:1-5, NIV).
Today and each day, let’s enter a time of solitude with the God who is always with us, emptying our worries, pouring out our pains, surrendering our struggles. Even in the midst of our sufferings, we hope in the powerfully real presence of God, the God who is making everything new.
…Sue…
P.S. Our gorgeous blog photo is brought to us courtesy of unsplash.com.
