Adele Ahlberg Calhoun - Invitations from God: Accepting Gods Offer to Rest, Weep, Forgive, Wait, Remember and More

Invitations from God

Accepting God's Offer to Rest, Weep, Forgive, Wait, Remember and More

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Formatio books from InterVarsity Press follow the rich tradition of the church in the journey of spiritual formation. These books are not merely about being informed, but about being transformed by Christ and conformed to his image. Formatio stands in InterVarsity Presss evangelical publishing tradition by integrating Gods Word with spiritual practice and by prompting readers to move from inward change to outward witness. InterVarsity Press uses the chambered nautilus for Formatio, a symbol of spiritual formation because of its continual spiral journey outward as it moves from its center. We believe that each of us is made with a deep desire to be in Gods presence. Formatio books help us to fulfill our deepest desires and to become our true selves in light of Gods grace.

InterVarsity Press
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2011 by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. niv. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Design: Cindy Kiple
Images:

man standing under tree:
Blanca van der Werf/Trevillion Images

hot wax stamp: inxti74/depositphotos

fingerprint: Mark Trost/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-6870-4

For

Doug, Nathaniel and Annaliese

the constant

.

: John Ortberg, The Life Youve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), pp. 47-48.

: Henri Nouwen, Jesus: A Gospel (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2001), p. 7.

. I remember hearing Tim Keller use this illustration in a sermon.

: Jonathan Edwards, Selected Writings of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Harold P. Simsonson (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1970), p. 119.

: Carl Jung is attributed with popularizing this statement.

: Mike Masons Practicing the Presence of People: How We Learn to Love (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 1999), and The Mystery of Marriage (Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2005) have both played a significant part in my understanding of what it means to love others. In The Mystery of Marriage, Mason writes beautifully about what it means to grant another the same value and regard we hold for ourselves. See especially pp. 36-39 of The Mystery of Marriage.

: Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000), pp. 76-77.

: C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1960), p. 169.

: Frederick Buechner, Godric (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980), p. 7.

: Mason, Practicing the Presence of People, p. 238.

: Ibid., p. 236.

: Tim Keller has used the movie Chariots of Fire to express the difference between Gods self-giving work and our self-justifying work. See Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (New York: Dutton, 2009), p. 73.

. This article includes a list of the top ten soft addictions. It highlights how treatment centers are opening up to treat such addicts. The Priory Clinic in London, for example, treats texting addicts.

.

: William Frey, Crying: The Mystery of Tears (Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1985).

: Kimberley Christine Patton, Howl, Weep and Moan, and Bring It Back to God: Holy Tears in Eastern Christianity, in Holy Tears: Weeping in the Religious Imagination, ed. Kimberley Christine Patton and John Stratton Hawley (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005), p. 257.

: Richard Foster, Longing for God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2009), p. 173.

: Youngs Analytical Concordance to the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979).

: Dan Allender, The Hidden Hope of Lament, Mars Hill Review 1 (1994): 25-38.

: It is intriguing that it seems to have taken humans longer to be moved to tears of grief than it took God. The Bibles first record of human tears is in Genesis 23:2, when Abraham wept for the death of Sarah. Yet once these human tears start, there seems to be no stopping them.

: Quoted in Patton and Hawley, Introduction, Holy Tears, p. 21.

: Carlo Maria Martina, Perseverance in Trials: Reflections on Job (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 52.

.

. On August 17, 1998, Clinton admitted before a grand jury that he had had an improper physical relationship with Lewinsky. That evening on national television, he admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was not appropriate.

.

: Ibid.

: Research in education confirms that a students assessment of their performance only moderately agrees with that of their teachers.

.

.

: See, for example, Mt 16:1; 19:3; 22:29-35; Lk 5:29-32; 6:2, 6-11; Mk 8.11; 10:2; 12:15; 14:60; Jn 8:6.

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: Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life (New York: Crossroad, 1999), p. 34.

: Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When Gods Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives (New York: HarperOne, 2004), p. 118.

: In small print on the billboard was a website address, www.Forgiveness istheway.org. The site, begun by a woman whose young daughter was paralyzed by a stray bullet in 2003, is maintained by a nonprofit educational services program devoted to reconciliation and tells stories of people who have made the journey to forgiveness.