Nouwen

[tehuatzi]

From an email I sent to a friend yesterday:

For our anniversary, M got me a book about one man's healing and transformative friendship with Mr. Rogers, entitled "I'm Proud Of You." It was the perfect gift. I read the first chapter out loud to M on Sat AM and we were both crying by the end.

Five years ago I was a Catechist and worship leader at an

Comments

[zelxyb]

Man, that's definitely true. Actually doing something is so much harder than figuring out some good ideas. I'll be interested to hear what steps you end up taking.

[sjepearson03]

Happy anniversary and much love to you both. I'm about to retreat to the mountains of Colorado where I will meet God and talk to Him about you. I love you so much. Come see us soon.

[tehuatzi]

What are you folks doing for Thanksgiving? M's going to see Jen in Seattle, so I and the boys will either mope around here or we'll drive somewhere within a few hours...

[sjepearson03]

We will be in Lincoln. The "Annual Men's Hunting Trip" is the 17th-19th, which Jeff is attending for the first time in order to meet/get to know Frank. We're gonna hang in Lincoln for Thanksgiving. Sorry. What about time with your parents?

[tehuatzi]

Maybe we'll do that. The boys and I saw them over Labor Day weekend, so I thought Nov would be a good time to see you all. We'll see... maybe we'll just hang out here.

Have fun in Lincoln!

[rockyrockstar]

I think you should plant a Vineyard church.

Love,
The Broken Record

[tehuatzi]

I love you, too.

M and I have decided to complete one serious ministry cycle here at RCC, which will probably span 1-2 yrs, and will involve my leading worship and helping to launch a men's ministry, and her developing the prayer ministry, among other things. After which time we will evaluate things with our Vineyard church planting coaches, namely you and Q.

[kelglitter]

I've been learning about this myself for the past few months. I haven't actually read any new books for it but I'm drawing upon a wealth of information my heart remembers from Dallas Willard, Thomas R. Kelly, Richard Foster, and even stuff I've heard Don Williams say, or that is implied from the way Jesus used to get up early and steal away. I have been learning to run

[tehuatzi]

Wow, that sounds marvelous, Kelley. I'm excited for you. And thank you for the encouragement.

[j3npayn3]

Hey, I'll hang out in ideas with you! Hahaha... haha

[tehuatzi]

Haven't heard of Schnarch. (Strikes me as an unfortunate name, btw.) Yeah, sounds like he's talking about the same thing as Nouwen. In a Christian framework, I think of God's embracing of us, and our bearing the divine eikon as being the primary ground of validation. But we're both familiar with how Sunday school answers are fruitless if we unthinkingly circle-the-right-answer-and-move-on-to-the-next-question, so I'm interested in exploring further the way you phrased it, "learning to validate and soothe ourselves." I wonder how "God validates me" relates to "I validate myself." It seems there are right and wrong ways to affirm either. This makes me think of Parker Palmer's 1999 book Let Your Life Speak, if you know him. I haven't read it, just saw it on amazon and read some of it there. Here's the boilerplate:

The old Quaker adage, "Let your life speak," spoke to author Parker J. Palmer when he was in his early 30s. It summoned him to a higher purpose, so he decided that henceforth he would live a nobler life. "I lined up

[j3npayn3]

Or as my brother likes to say - I'll punch him in the throat. For some reason, that never fails to make me laugh. A lot

[tehuatzi]

Oh, and Amen to your last paragraph - that's a good word. I'll raise a glass with you. Reminds me of something McLaren once said about "needing an ecclesiology that can acknowledge latent periods without guilt."