Faith Venture

Henri J. M. Nouwen, one of my favorite spiritual writers, said, “To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives – the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections – that requires hard spiritual work.”

This reminds me of the words of Jesus who once said that even the pagans can be kind to their friends. It’s when you do the hard spiritual work of loving your enemies that your heart for God is revealed.

Sometimes we get lazy. We don’t want to do hard spiritual work. Being grateful for those experiences that have shaped us–the good and bad–takes that hard work.

Don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and go to work.

This entry was posted on January 23, 2019 at 7:30 am and is filed under Disciplines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.