working
However the Spirit works in you,
work with that Spirit.
However the Spirit bears love in you,
let that love grow.
If beauty or friendship feed your joy,
bathe your heart in those things.
If words or silence nourish your peace,
give time to them to bless you.
If baseball makes you more patient
then play baseball.
Whatever nourishes the Spirit in you
practice, that it may bear fruit.
And whatever diminishes
your kindness or generosity,
whatever chokes your faithfulness,
or diverts your gentleness and self-control,
whatever assaults the Spirit and its life in you,
let go of those things.
If watching the news or working too long
drains your compassion,
then repent of those things
and pray that you find a way
to tend the Spirit in you,
whose fruit already is there within you,
whole and life-giving, quietly ripening.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Courage is connected with taking risks. Jumping the Grand Canyon on a motorbike, coming over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or crossing the ocean in a rowboat are called courageous acts because people risk their lives by doing these things. But none of these daredevil acts comes from the centre of our being. They all come from the desire to test our physical limits and to become famous and popular.
Spiritual courage is something completely different. It is following the deepest desires of our hearts at the risk of losing fame and popularity. It asks of us the willingness to lose our temporal lives in order to gain eternal life.
– Henri Nouwen
www.henrinouwen.org
life: acoustic & amplified 