Letting Go of Old Hurts - Henri Nouwen

Wonderful thoughts as we finish a tumultuous year!  BEN

Letting Go of Old Hurts

One of the hardest things in life is to let go of old hurts. We often say, or at least think: "What you did to me and my family, my ancestors, or my friends I cannot forget or forgive. ... One day you will have to pay for it." Sometimes our memories are decades, even centuries, old and keep asking for revenge.

Holding people's faults against them often creates an impenetrable wall. But listen to Paul: "For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see. It is all God's work" (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). Indeed, we cannot let go of old hurts, but God can. Paul says: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's fault against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). It is God's work, but we are God's ministers, because the God who reconciled the world to God entrusted to us "the message of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:19). This message calls us to let go of old hurts in the Name of God. It is the message our world most needs to hear.

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A Christmas Love Story

I just wrote a Blog entry about an amazing story I heard this morning over breakfast. Please read about it here!
http://drben54.livejournal.com/78091.html

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The Fullness of Time - by Henri Nouwen

The Fullness of Time

Jesus came in the fullness of time. He will come again in the fullness of time. Wherever Jesus, the Christ, is the time is brought to its fullness.

We often experience our time as empty. We hope that tomorrow, next week, next month or next year the real things will happen. But sometimes we experience the fullness of time. That is when it seems that time stands still, that past, present, and future become one; that everything is present where we are; and that God, we, and all that is have come together in total unity. This is the experience of God's time. "When the completion of the time came [that is: in the fullness of time], God sent his Son, born of a woman" (Galatians 4:4), and in the fullness of time God will "bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). It is in the fullness of time that we meet God.

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Share your thoughts on this reflection. These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

Read the latest Nouwen release: Home Tonight. Watch Home Tonight with Henri Nouwen video.

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Rev. Dr. Ben has shared a Huffington Post article with you

Rev. Dr. Ben has shared a Huffington Post article with you:
Michael Moore Threatens To Boycott Connecticut Over Lieberman

- sent by Rev. Dr. Ben

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Last minute gifts? shop here for gifts which "pay it forward"

https://huffingtonpost.causecast.org/

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Senator Joe must go!

Check out this funny sock puppet video of Senator Joe Lieberman holding health care hostage for his list of personal demands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vS6kIbJu64

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The Holly and the Ivy - Medieval Holiday wishes to all my FACEBOOK and Blog friends!

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Why? A song by Tracy Chapman

I was sent this link and realized it asks questions we need to remember to ask. Especially in this age of Christmas parties and retail excess. BEN

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Anticipating the Vision - by Henri Nouwen

Anticipating the Vision

The marvelous vision of the peaceable Kingdom, in which all violence has been overcome and all men, women, and children live in loving unity with nature, calls for its realisation in our day-to-day lives. Instead of being an escapist dream, it challenges us to anticipate what it promises. Every time we forgive our neighbor, every time we make a child smile, every time we show compassion to a suffering person, every time we arrange a bouquet of flowers, offer care to tame or wild animals, prevent pollution, create beauty in our homes and gardens, and work for peace and justice among peoples and nations we are making the vision come true.

We must remind one another constantly of the vision. Whenever it comes alive in us we will find new energy to live it out, right where we are. Instead of making us escape real life, this beautiful vision gets us involved.

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The Peaceable Kingdom - by Henri Nouwen

The Peaceable Kingdom

All of creation belongs together in the arms of its Creator. The final vision is that not only will all men and women recognise that they are brothers and sisters called to live in unity but all members of God's creation will come together in complete harmony. Jesus the Christ came to realise that vision. Long before he was born, the prophet Isaiah saw it:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the panther lie down with the kid,
calf, lion and fat-stock beast together,
with a little boy to lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze,
their young will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like the ox.
The infant will play over the den of the adder;
the baby will put his hand into the viper's lair.
No hurt, no harm will be done
on all my holy mountain,
for the country will be full of knowledge of Yahweh
as the waters cover the sea.
(Isaiah 11:6-9)

We must keep this vision alive!
Henri Nouwen

I'm back!

Thanks to the new Posterous.com service, recommended by Andy Ihnatko, I will be autoposting again to this blog as well as my Livejournal and Facebook. please fell free to check me out there as well. BEN