Empty?

Real training for service asks for a hard & often painful process of self-emptying. The main problem of service is to be the way without being ‘in the way.' And if there are tools, techniques & skills to be learned they are primarily to plow the field, to cut the weeds & to clip the branches, that is, to take away the obstacles for real growth & development. Training for service is not a training to become rich but to become voluntarily poor; not fulfill ourselves but to empty ourselves; not to conquer God but to surrender to his saving power & influence. But it is important that in this world there remain a few voices crying out that if there is anything to boast of, we should boast of our weakness. Our fulfillment is in offering emptiness, our usefulness in becoming useless, our power in becoming powerless.

-From Reaching Out by Henri J. M. Nouwen

When I think about the work before us this weekend, to preach the good news to those who are lost & to encourage the followers of Christ in their journey, Henri's call to empty ourselves seems most appropriate. I pray that we would be acceptable offerings to our Father.

God be with you.

My grace is sufficient for you, formy power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then,I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. II Corinthians 12: 9-10

Published 27 February 2009 01:18 PM by Pam Howell