Thinking. Being beloved.

We had a week away at the beach recently and I really enjoyed sitting still and reading nothing but the one book I brought with me – Henry Nouwen's Spiritual Direction.

Nouwen has been dead for some years now, but some of his students pooled their material and did plenty of research into his old lecture materialto put together a three part series of books based on his spiritual formation courses.

one of Nouwen's big themes is that of being "the beloved" of God.I find it humbling, warming and exciting. I especially enjoyed this paragraph:

Don't you often hope: "may this book, idea, course, trip, job, country, or relationship fulfill my deepest desire." But as long as you are waiting for that mysterious moment, you will go on running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy but at the same time makes us wonder whether we're getting anywhere in the long run. This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burnout. This is the way to spiritual death.

Well, you and I don't have to dissipate and divide ourselves. We are the beloved. We were intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends loved all wounded us. That's the truth of our lives. That's the truth I want you to claim for yourself. That's the truth spoken by the voice that says, "you are my beloved."