Sunday, August 16, 2009

Nouwen: choosing hope

"You are constantly facing choices. The question is whether you choose for God or for your own doubting self. You know what the right choice is , but your emotions, passions, and feelings keep suggesting you choose the self-rejecting way.
The root choice is to trust at all times that God is with you and will give you what you most need. Your self-rejecting emotions might say "It isn't going to work. I'm still suffering the same anguish I did six months ago. I will probably fall back into the old depressive patterns of acting and reacting. I haven't really changed." And on and on. It is hard not to listen to these voices. Still you know that these are not God's voice. God says to you,'I love you, I am with you, I want to see you come closer to me and experience the joy and peace of my presence. I want to give you a new heart and and new spirit. I want you to speak with my mouth, see with my eyes, and hear with my ears, touch with my hands. All that is mine is yours. Just trust me and let me be your God."
This is the voice to listen to. And that listening requires a real choice, not just once in awhile but every moment of each day and night. You can think yourself into a depression, you can talk yourself into low self-esteem, you can act in a self-rejecting way. But you always have a choice to think, speak and act in the Name of God and so move toward the Light, the Truth, and the Life.

Henri Nouwen

Addendum:
I recently found a bit more of this quote-

As you conclude this period of spiritual renewal, you are faced once again with a choice. You can choose to remember this time as a failed attempt to be completely reborn or you can also *choose to remember it as the precious time when God began new things in you that need to be brought to completion.* Your future depends on how you decide to remember your past. Choose for the truth of what you know. Do not let your still anxious emotions distract you. *As you keep choosing God, your emotions will gradually give up their rebellion and be converted to the truth in you.*

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