Charles Ringma - Dare to Journey--with Henri Nouwen

Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen

2000 by Charles Ringma. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ringma, Charles.

Dare to journey with Henri Nouwen / Charles Ringma.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57683-226-0
1. Nouwen, Henri J. M. I. Title.

BX4705.N87 R56 2000

248.4'82dc21

ISBN 978-1-57683-226-4 00-062490

Build: 2021-04-21 13:31:08 EPUB 3.0

For the one who has given me true companionship, much warmth, persistent encouragement and gentle but firm challenge
Rita

I HAVE WRITTEN THIS BOOK BECAUSE I BELIEVE THAT there is an intimate connection between personal well-being and the development of the inner life. Our culture is not rich in understanding the development of spirituality. It tends to be too pragmatically focused. The issue for our culture is what we produce and achieve, not what we are.

Our religious institutions often fail to aid us in our spiritual development. They provide rituals, symbols, doctrines, and meetings, but they often dont help us to move to the experiential and practical. They may tell us that we should pray but do not teach us how to pray.

Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen attempts to bring us to the how of the development of the spiritual life without resorting to techniques. It sets out a pattern of inner development that moves us from where we are to a place of refreshment so that we can purposefully reengage the issues we need to face in our world. It seeks to do this not by doctrines or rituals, but by a wisdom born of life experience.

This work is designed to be used as a handbook for personal inner development, reflection, and meditation, for times of retreat, spiritual renewal, reevaluation, and prayer. It is meant to be a conversation partner, not a book of answers. Dare to Journey seeks to encourage its readers in the journey that each of us must make, without providing all the road maps.

My special thanks go to Karen McColm for typing the manuscript, to my friends at Jubilee Fellowship for their encouragement and feedback, and to Helen Woolcock for many helpful comments on the content and style of this book.

C HARLES R INGMA

Brisbane, Australia, 1991

T HERE ARE SEASONS IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE : the movement from immaturity to maturity, the journey from struggle to surrender, the path of turmoil to peace, faith to understanding, and sowing to reaping.

But there is a problem with a linear projection of the inner life where we move from one plateau to the next, from one state of existence to another. Life is just not like this. It is more circular. There are times when, as it were, we have to start all over again, when we have to be converted again and to relearn lessons and disciplines that we have neglected in our spiritual formation.

At the same time, we experience life as paradoxical. Things stand in tension with each other, and things do not always work out in anticipated ways. Good sometimes has unfortunate consequences, and out of tragedy blessings can emerge. Thus the spiritual journey does not consist of neat stages. Seldom do we move smoothly from darkness to enlightenment and live happily ever after in the latter state.

In this collection of reflections and meditations, we prefer to speak of the rhythms of the spiritual life, the to-and-fro movement that not only calls us forward, but also calls us to retreat. This approach recognizes that ecstasy and despair, inwardness and worldly concern, maturity and simplicity, growth and conversion, spiritual power and repentance, faith and fear, loneliness and friendship all jostle together as we seek to grow in the spiritual disciplines.

One of the most basic rhythms of the inner life is the movement from our restless senses to an inner solitude in order to reengage the world with new creativity and hope. It is the movement from where we arewith our struggles, burdens, and painsin order to drink again at the fountain of life, the place of Gods encouragement where we can find inner renewal for our ongoing participation in our world.

The rhythm starts with where we are, not idealistically with where we think we ought to be. It helps us to focus realistically on what is happening to us. It looks life squarely in the face and makes no excuses.

The second stage in this rhythm occurs when we are drawn to the place of solitude and the source of renewal. This is the place where we lay down our burdens, confess our failures, lance our hurts, expose our grief, and acknowledge our foolishness and idolatry. This place is Gods loving presence, where we can be embraced, forgiven, empowered, and fueled for the journey.

The third stage in the rhythm is when we can reengage our circumstances and our world with these new resources and creativity so that we are no longer overwhelmed, but are able to respond with newfound courage.

If we dont start with the first stage, we live in unreality. If we dont move to the second stage, we may end up living in despair and will certainly exhaust our inner resources. If, however, we fail to engage in the third stage, we may be spiritually replete, but we are socially irrelevant.

In the particular way that these reflections have been grouped together, this rhythm of the spiritual life will become all the more apparent. To help in this journey of discovery, we have invited Henri Nouwen to join us. A well-known Catholic writer on spirituality, Nouwen demonstrates a sensitive intimacy in the quest for wholeness. This will complement our own struggle toward the light and our groping for faith and authenticity in a secularized world.

This world is to be my home, as much as it is not to be the place that sets the agenda for my life. It is the place that sustains me, but that also needs to be transformed by the grace of God. Thus, while participating in all of life, I need to draw aside to find a place of intimacy with the God who loves and sustains me. And from this reoccurring center-point I can be personally enriched so that I can continue to wash the feet of the world.

P SALM 46:10

Taking Time for Inner Renewal