Jan

4

Re: in making our new year resolutions

Posted By Kay | Filed Under Kay Vardeleon 

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Am sure we all have plans for major personality (and physical?) overhauls this coming 2008. Or maybe there are work/ relational goals that we want to target for the new year. Either way, before we get too excited by all the planning and the listings, let us remind ourselves of the disposition in making resolutions. Reflecting quietly on the year that was, and a humble surrender of our plans to His will are prerequisites to our newfound commitments. We need first to be “poor in spirit.”

I have found the following reflection, based from the words of Jesuit counselor Henri Nouwen, helpful in this endeavor. Have a blessed 2008!

‘Poor in the Spirit” Silence
Moving from the good to the best

…not every silence is productive for coming to solitude. All quietness does not lead to inner peace. Henri Nouwen says: ‘It is [in] the silence of the “poor in spirit” wherein you see life in its proper perspective. This silence is the product of an inner disposition characterized by abandonment and hope.To be ‘poor in spirit’ is not to be poor-spirited—that is, pasive and without drive and initiative. Quite the opposite. It is to be full of spirit— full of plans, desires and ideas. But also full of the knowledge that everything we plan and desire should not necessarilly be carried out; that everything we desire does not always have productive outcomes—and that therefore we need to learn the art of abandonment by subjecting our plans and desires to the scrutiny of God’s wisdom.

In doing this we become candidates for hope. For God’s wisdom will open up new possibilities. In laying something aside, fresh perspectives can be gained. And in acnowledging that we don’t have all the answers, insight can come from the most unexpected sources.

The silence of the ‘poor in spirit’ is productive in helping us move from the good and the best, from the spontaneous to the wise, from the most impulsive to the most constructive. In this silence we learn to bring ourselves, with all or plans and ideas , to the point of inner surrender and quietude. Not in order to be nothing or do nothing, but in order to know more truly and to act more creatively.

—Charles Ringma
Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen

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