Good morning…
“After we let go, what do we do with our own emptiness?” a woman privately asked after my Let Go. Let God. talk with the Lovett Moms In Prayer.
“Emptiness – we naturally feel it,” I think I said. “Emptiness – we patiently endure it. Emptiness – we quietly wait for God to fill us.”
Ours was a short interaction. We were quickly interrupted. But her question stayed with me: “After we let go, what do we do with our own emptiness?”
Pondering God’s growing edge right now, we personalize a devotional message from last week. Words of deep wisdom speak into our emptiness, quietly making a home within our heart.
******
DAILY MEDITATION | AUGUST 19, 2022 – Poverty is a Quality of the Heart by Henri Nouwen
Poverty is the quality of the heart that makes us relate to life, not as a property to be defended but as a gift to be shared. Poverty is the constant willingness to say good-bye to yesterday and move forward to new, unknown experiences. Poverty is the inner understanding that the hours, days, weeks, and years do not belong to us but are the gentle reminders of our call to give, not only love and work, but life itself, to those who follow us and will take our place. He or she who cares is invited to be poor, to strip himself or herself from the illusions of ownership, and to create some room for the person looking for a place to rest. The paradox of care is that poverty makes a good host. When our hands, heads, and hearts are filled with worries, concerns, and preoccupations, there can hardly be any place left for the stranger to feel at home.
******
Our children are not a property to be defended but a gift from God to be shared with the world. When we let go, the ache of emptiness we feel requires a constant willingness to say good-bye to yesterday and move forward to new, unknown experiences. Our state of inner poverty gently understands that the hours, days, weeks, and years do not belong to us; we are called to give life and love to those who follow us, to those who will take our place. We who care deeply are invited to be poor, to strip ourselves of the illusions of ownership, and to create some room for the next person looking for a place to rest. The paradox of deeply caring is that poverty makes a good host. When our hands, our heads, and our hearts are filled with worries, concerns, and preoccupations, we have no place left for the stranger to feel at home.
“We cannot see things in perspective until we cease to hug them to our own bosom,” Thomas Merton reminds us. Our empty arms and inner poverty give God space to freely love. Jesus adds: “They are blessed who realize their spiritual poverty, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them” (Matthew 5:3, NCV).
When we feel empty, poor in spirit, might the kingdom of heaven create a welcoming guest room within us?
…Sue…
