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| Torrey Pines, California |
Henri Nouwen writes:
"Real freedom to live in this world comes from hearing clearly the truth about who we are, which is that we are the beloved. That’s what prayer is about. And that’s why it is so crucial and not just a nice thing to do once in a while. It is the essential attitude that creates in us the freedom to love other people not because they are going to love us back but because we are so loved and out of the abundance of that love we want to give." (Nouwen, A Spirituality of Living, pp. 15-16)
We are the beloved, the loved ones of God. God loves you.
Those were the first words from God I ever heard. I was twenty-one. A campus pastor, Marshall Foster, was talking to me and my roommate. I wasn't listening, because I was thinking how I could argue against this person. I asked him a question. A hard question. "I can't answer that one," he said. Then Marshall added, "But I do believe there is a God, and that he loves you." (Marshall is now Director of the World History Institute. Here he is doing a video with actor Kirk Cameron.)
That was it for me. I was undone.
Ruined for life.
God loves me.
I knew it, viscerally, existentially, ontologically. In my heart.
I have never been the same since.
I am God's beloved.
I must keep this truth always before me.
The heart-knowing of God's never-failing love for me frees me to love other people, regardless of whether they love in return.
God's love frees me to pray and love and live for others.
God's love unhinges me from the prison walls of hypothetical, theoretical love.
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My two books are:
Leading the Presence-Driven Church
Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.
