BOOK REVIEW
THE WAY OF THE HEART -DESERT SPIRITUALITY
AND CONTEMPORARY MINISTRY.
HENRI J.M. NOUWEN-
SEABURY PRESS.
Henry invites us to search deeply for the
well-springs that nourish true ministry by looking to the example of the
fifth-century Egyptian desert fathers and mothers. Their experiences teach us
to find a place for Solitude, Silence, and prayer.
“The the thesis of this book is the way God’s people find Him through their hearts producing
an overflow to every sphere of their lives.” Henry’s major message is to move us
beyond what seems forbidding about the three disciplines “Solitude, silence and prayer” by pointing us toward the “the way
of the heart”, which then overflows into the way we relate with others and live
our contemporary spiritual life.
In this book, I found very profound truths
about the three disciplines.
1.
Solitude:
We
are living in busy days where we don’t find time to rest or ponder over the
things we do or even think., and this leads to fabricated outward lives.
Underneath the fabrication lies internal compulsions that we can’t run away
from. its in Solitude that we get transformed and deal with both compulsions
and encounter the loving God.
We learn that solitude is neither a time
and place where we are not bothered by people, nor is it a place where we go to
recharge and gather new strength, otherwise in such a place we would only physically
avoid distractions, but still have internal compulsions pressing us, Solitude
is a place where Christ remodels us to his own image as we lead others who are
seeking the light there. It’s a place of conversion where our old self dies,
and we get a new self. It sounds like spiritual transformation.
This makes it far beyond our strength and
skills but only in Christ, we can achieve solitude. In our daily life’s solitude
means that even if like the desert fathers we do not go to the desert we
develop our own desert where we can withdraw every day and have intimate
encounters which will translate to fruitful ministry. Simply said When solitude
has happened and there is transformation there must be outward expressions that
are seen and one of them is compassion which is a fruit of solitude and basis
for our ministry. Compassion means that our hearts are turned from the heart of
stone into flesh until we don’t just die to self but even to neighbors. I found
that concept very new but profound because in order to serve others we must die
to them by giving up comparing ourselves to others and giving up measuring our
meaning and value with others. When we use other people as yardsticks the classifications,
we get influences from other people into our thoughts deeply and we, therefore, fall into self-fulfilling and create self-limits which make us not available
for people.
In
solitude a self-righteous person is molded into a gentle caring forgiving
It's more than the things I do but who I am
and who I am becoming in Christ.
The way to make solitude a reality is by
Silence.
2.
Silence
This is silence
practiced in action.
Being surrounded by a wordy world how can
our words reflect the divine word in and through whom the world has been
created and redeemed. Indeed, words are meant to disclose the mystery of the
silence. I agree with him that words are supposed to disclose the mystery of
silence. This reminds me of Luke 6 :45 b from the abundance of my heart my
mouth speaks. I learned the three aspects of silence: silence makes us pilgrims- a man who controls his tongue is a
pilgrim, Henry says that “Not speaking makes us stay away from sin”. Sin
is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues prov
10:19. I have experienced
silent people who have confessed that in the silence they process lots of sin
inwardly. And it makes me think that
there is, therefore, a need to deal with what happens inward so that it would be a
holy silence. I wonder also with the different personalities that God gifts us
where some people can easily keep silent and others it takes more effort. I think
that different personalities should be able to speak from the mystery of God
that is revealed from the inside. I have been on a journey with trying to be quiet
and God has been teaching me that we all have different personalities, but he
desires that all personalities can have stillness in him and how I manifest
outward is determined by my inner strength. From then I utilize my outgoing
personality to speak wisdom and trust God to have more fire to share with
people. It takes more intentionality on my part to be silent and know when to
speak and hen not to. Both those who struggle to be silent and those who don’t
have to make sure that their inner life is in order. silence
guards the fire within and the fire of God in my life is tended here and
kept alive in silence. I loved the Vincent van’s quote “there may be a great
fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passerby
only sees a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney and go along their
way……….”. How can people experience the heat from the fire within me? The heat
from the inside should be felt outward. The more you are involved in speaking in
and to people’s life the more you have to guard the fire. silence
teaches us to speak-its from the silence that we speak, and we should not
become fearful of it and keep pursuing noise.
How do I practice the ministry of silence?
·
Silence
and preaching -I was amazed to see that I should have God's word not just for
motivation or encouragement but that as one that creates the boundaries within
which people can listen to the loving caring gentle presence of God. Making
sure people move from me the preacher to God- meditative preaching. I surely
pray that I can practice, and this is something new I would like to practice.
·
Silence
and counseling- a reminder that Holy Spirit is the divine counselor, and He is
actively present in the lives of those who discern him. As I counsel people, I
should bring them to that place of silence so that they can interact with the
divine counselor. It’s very sad to note
that people look to us and not God most time and our role should be to point
them to the Lord, not to us.
·
Silence
and Organizing- As a leader how can I keep people who work under me to become
less busy so they can focus on God. I wonder how that balance can be achieved.
I think I would desire that the people that work under me are on a spiritual
formation and keen to have a daily walk with the Lord and that way they develop
a healthy rhythm for themselves. Because keeping people away from being busy
does not mean they will focus on God, they must just get more time to chase
other things. So, I think my role would be to expose them to the understanding of
such a place so it is done from motivation inwardly.
3.
Prayer
Besides Arsenious
hearing God say, “be silent” he heard him say “pray always”. If my solitude and
silence is without prayer, then I am self-centered, the first two cannot be
separated from prayer. Just as observed I usually will know the importance of
prayer but fail to practice it.
Prayer is not
intellectual though intellect has a place in prayer. successful prayer is one
that leads to new intellectual discoveries about God and comes from the heart.
I liked the
expression that prayer leads to that rest where the soul can dwell with God.
it’s that God enabled a way of stillness where we descend with the mind into the
heart and stand before the face of the Lord. The wholeness is s place that I
desire to be, where my prayer of truth directs itself to God from
my center and thus affecting the whole of my humanness. I am struggling to
understand the difference between thinking about God and thinking thoughts about
God and his mysteries. The line is so thin that I need to process more. I
learned the three characteristics of prayer: short simple, unceasing and all-inclusive. Prayer is not just talking with God but with God and since its two
way I need to hear him. I need to talk to him on every occasion in a simple
way.
There is a lot to
learn from this book for my ministry.
In my journey of
spiritual formation, I must seek solitude and from within and without, I must
allow God to enter the most private areas of my life that need dying and
receive new life in Christ. I can easily find time alone and practice silence,
but my mind can be very crowded, and I am learning from this book how to enter
that stillness in my heart which will translate into my outer ministry.
More than the knowledge I get of my need to practice this I want to be able to set apart time
and place to be with God every day. Out of this, I made a schedule to have a
fixed time to be with the Lord otherwise I will keep doing tasks that are
great and gain head knowledge about God but not being with Him.
I am a leader and
I have learned that as well as I need to have tasks done I need to ensure people
are finding spaces and times where they meet God, I would take this further by
ensuring they understand and find God through their hearts then they can have
it as a priority whether with heavy tasks or little tasks.
Allowing the young people that I mentor and counsel
to meet God in a personal way where He will transform them, and then it will
not be about me but about God- Practicing humility right from now.
I want to be able
to give from my heart within and serve from a place of rest and this book has
been an encouragement for me.
As a mission
mobilizer who is gifted by God, I must take responsibility of the words that
come from me to other people, taking time to reflect on what I say why I say it
and how I say it. And with my personality, I must intentionally practice
solitude and silence in prayer so I can continue having the warmth of God.
As one who speaks
Gods word, I have learned reflective preaching and I would like to surely
practice this.
I am task-oriented
even in ministry and I would desire to move further from my tasks to being.
Practicing the things, I preach and talk about is being.
Learning to talk
more with God and not talk to God which is what I do often for lack of faith
and thoughts that wouldn’t answer or that I would not even hear his voice.
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