Good Tuesday Morning Everyone…
This is Jarrod. I am leaving in just a few hours for the Pepperdine Lectures. I just sat down to post this blog entry and realized that I forgot my book at the church office, which means I can’t really type in any of the quotes I would like to share this week. I know that sounds like a lousy excuse, but it is nevertheless, the truth. 
So, the only real option left to me is to ask you all for a huge favor. Can you leave a comment to this post that offers the rest of us your favorite quote from this final section of The Road to Daybreak? As Jason said last week, each and every section of this book has been so inspiring and convicting. Nouwen’s simple approach to sharing the deepest parts of who he is, acts as a profound blessing and guide to us on our own spiritual journeys.
Where has he encouraged or challenged you the most in this book?
Jason and I look forward to reading your thoughts and impressions.
So I come full circle and talk about prayer again. Like Nouwen, “There are countless pressures to do more important things than pray” yet praying is what I am pressured to countlessly do.
In my feeble little mind prayer is sorta like running a marathon. Actually it’s probably more like training for a marathon. Today I have to run 10 miles as part of my training, but 3 miles into the run I can just imagine my body being so tired from the day, and so worn from worry that my brain screams “Give up and walk!” but I know if I were to stop or if I were to walk a little then the next time I ran it wouild be easier to stop or walk, and the distance ran would be shorter, and the one after that even shorter, and pretty soon I would not be running at all, I wouldn’t be training, and thus would never enter the marathon. Running would be something I used to do but now I just sit in the recliner and watch TV.
So I can’t stop running, not even for a moment, not even for five feet, you know, because if I stop even for five feet then…that’s it. I gotta push, you know, keep pushing. And so it is with prayer. No matter how puzzling, no matter how frustrating, no matter that I think my prayer was ignored, no matter how much I don’t feel like praying, I know I have to keep praying (my understanding of “prayer”) because I know me and I know if I stop praying – even for one day – then one day becomes two, then a week, then months.
Nouwen said, “The most important criterion is prayer. As long as I pray daily, intimately and long, I stay in the right place and continue to walk on the road to faithfulness. But when I let my prayer go because of fatigue, distraction, or laziness, I know that I will soon be on the other side of the fence.” Amen to that. I want to be in that “right place.”
I appreciate Jarrod and Jason hosting this forum and recommending the book which I really enjoyed. Keenly interested to know what you plan for the next one. I also thank the Book Club members for all the conversation we’ve had about the book, both in blog and in the hallway at church. Good stuff and I am very much inspired by your wisdom, and your faith, and your tenacity to stay the course, and to know I’m not the only one who struggles with “things.” Yes, you truly inspired me. You really did.
Over and out.
There are so many things that really spoke to me in this last section, however because I moved in the last year, this one seems to fit my circumstances best:
“I am increasingly aware of how important it is to enjoy what is given and to fully live where one is.” p. 208-209
And also, since I seem to go from one stage to aanother and back again, I could identify with Nouwen’s observation of himself:
“There were days when I felt very much connected with Jesus–thinking, speaking, and acting in communion with him. But there were also days when I felt so needy, distant, anxious, or restless that Jesus seemed far away.” p. 207
He then goes on to say that all of these “mood swings” seem to center around his prayer life. I find this is also true for me.
Finally, thank you to Jarrod and Jason for introducing us to Nouwen’s writings. This spiritual journey of Nouwen’s definitely helped me in my own journey.