Missionary Renegade: The Daily Meditation: "Bringing Our Secrets into the Light" The Henri Nouwen Society in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for Saturday, 24 February 2018

Saturday, February 24, 2018

The Daily Meditation: "Bringing Our Secrets into the Light" The Henri Nouwen Society in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for Saturday, 24 February 2018

The Daily Meditation: "Bringing Our Secrets into the Light" The Henri Nouwen Society in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for Saturday, 24 February 2018

DAILY MEDITATION: "Bringing Our Secrets into the Light" for Saturday, 24 February 2018

Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com

We all have our secrets: thoughts, memories, feelings that we keep to ourselves. Often we think, "If people knew what I feel or think, they would not love me." These carefully kept secrets can do us much harm. They can make us feel guilty or ashamed and may lead us to self-rejection, depression, and even suicidal thoughts and actions.
One of the most important things we can do with our secrets is to share them in a safe place, with people we trust. When we have a good way to bring our secrets into the light and can look at them with others, we will quickly discover that we are not alone with our secrets and that our trusting friends will love us more deeply and more intimately than before. Bringing our secrets into the light creates community and inner healing. As a result of sharing secrets, not only will others love us better but we will love ourselves more fully.

For further reflection...
"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord." (Psalm 139: 1-4)
Your response...
"Love is metaphysical gravity." (R. Buckminster Fuller)
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The Daily Meditation: "What Is Most Personal Is Most Universal" The Henri Nouwen Society in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for Friday, 23 February 2018

DAILY MEDITATION: "What Is Most Personal Is Most Universal" for Friday, 23 February 2018

Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
We like to make a distinction between our private and public lives and say, "Whatever I do in my private life is nobody else's business." But anyone trying to live a spiritual life will soon discover that the most personal is the most universal, the most hidden is the most public, and the most solitary is the most communal. What we live in the most intimate places of our beings is not just for us but for all people. That is why our inner lives are lives for others. That is why our solitude is a gift to our community, and that is why our most secret thoughts affect our common life.
Jesus says, "No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house" (Matthew 5:14-15). The most inner light is a light for the world. Let's not have "double lives"; let us allow what we live in private to be known in public.

For further reflection...
Moses said to the Lord, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth?... Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." (Exodus 4: 10-13)
Your response...
Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. (C . S. Lewis)
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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Scripture chosen by L. Yeskoo.

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