Archives by: Gary Hoag

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged Him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:28-32

“When Jesus enters into the home of His disciples it becomes His home. The guest becomes host. He who was invited now invites. The two disciples who trusted the stranger enough to let him enter into their inner space are now led into the inner life of their host. “Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them.” So simple, so ordinary, so obvious, and still — so very different! What else can you do when you share bread with your friends? You take it, bless it, break it, and give it. That is what bread is for: to be taken, blessed, broken, and given. Nothing new, nothing surprising. It happens every day, in countless homes. It belongs to the essence of living. We can’t really live without bread that is taken, blessed, broken, and given. Without it there is no table fellowship, no community, no bond of friendship, no peace, no love, no hope. Yet, with it, all can become new!”

Henri Nouwen in With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1994) 65.

When the two disciples invite Jesus in, everything changes for them.

Ponder this with me for a moment. Firstly, think of a person you know with whom you could take, bless, break, and give bread today?

Once you have that person in your mind, secondly, plan a meal with them. Then whilst together, invite Jesus into the conversation. See what happens.

Recently, when I was visiting a friend, we could have talked at length about our problems, our cares, worries, and troubles. Instead, I opened the Scriptures.

Something happened. We invited Jesus into our fellowship and He made all things new! Our troubles did not go away but our perspective lifted and our hope returned.

The same happened in one of our mealtime conversation with the Chilean delegation this week. Again, God showed up and the Word lifted everyone’s Spirits.

Invite Jesus into your conversations. It could be the most generous thing you do.

Pray for a great visit with my friend and mentor, Dan Busby, who is battling cancer. We meet tomorrow before I return to Denver. I don’t know what Scripture I will read. God will guide me.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35

“In solitude we can slowly unmask the illusion of our possessiveness and discover in the center of our own self that we are not what we can conquer, but what is given to us. In solitude we can listen to the voice of Him who spoke to us before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone. It is in this solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the result of our efforts. In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared. It’s there we recognize that the healing words we speak are not just our own, but are given to us; that the love we can express is part of a greater love; and that the new life we bring forth is not a property to cling to, but a gift to be received.”

Henri Nouwen in Journey of the Heart (St. Louis: All Saints Press, 2010) 14.

There’s something unmatched about the power of being alone with God. Nouwen unpacks aspects of it for us today. We can unmask, listen, discover, and recognize things we could not otherwise discern, hear, learn, and see.

But it’s not really a popular activity. Why?

Most people focus on pursuing things or achievements. They think about healing others when they themselves need healing. I’ve been guilty this and am finding it true first-hand. And the idea of possessiveness actually closes us to what we really need to receive, which is the new life that God offers us.

So what does this have to do with generosity?

Follow the example of Jesus. Get up early some day over the next week. Journal what you discern, hear, learn, and see from God. Do this before going to share love, healing, or care to others. Discover how it fills and forms you to be an agent of transformation. Receive first. Then give the life that is to be shared.

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 1 Peter 4:8-9

“How does healing take place? Many words, such as “care” and “compassion,” “understanding” and “forgive­ness,” “fellowship” and “community,” have been used for the healing task of the Christian minister.

I like to use the word “hospitality,” not only because it has such deep roots in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, but also, and primarily, because it gives us more insight into the nature of response to the human condition of loneliness.

Hospitality is the virtue that allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears and to open our houses to the stranger, with the intuition that salvation comes to us in the form of a tired traveler. Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes closed-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights.

But it has become very difficult for us today to fully un­derstand the implications of hospitality. Like the Semitic nomads, we live in a desert with many lonely travelers who are looking for a moment of peace, for a fresh drink, and for a sign of encouragement so that they can continue their mysterious search for freedom.

What does hospitality as a healing power require? It requires first of all that hosts feel at home in their own house, and second, that they create a free and fearless place for the unexpected visitor.”

Henri Nouwen in Wounded Healer: Ministry in a Contemporary Society (New York: Image, 1972) 95-96.

Nouwen teaches us yet again how to minister to others in this broken world: “create a free and fearless place for the unexpected visitor” that “makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes closed-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights.” The apostle Peter urges us to reflect on God’s love for us to move beyond grumbling.

The time with the Chilean delegation is going well at Black Rock Retreat. Peter Fiorello (our host), Carla Archila (GTP Spanish translator and interpreter from Guatemala), and I have worked to make this a place where they can feel welcome, grasp new concepts, and experience transformation. What about you? Does your home, your office, or your place of ministry draw people in and minister to them deeply?

Encouraging Christian generosity, Nouwen might say, is about first feeling “at home” in your own house. That is, finding contentment in our Lord Jesus Christ and peace in His matchless care, so that you can share freely all He has supplied had fearlessly give what you have knowing He will care for you. Soak in this. The first step is feeling at home. Rest in His love then create a free and fearless space.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“Paul not only encourages unceasing prayer, but also practices it. “We continually thank God for you” (1 Thessalonians 2:13), he says to his community in Greece. “We also pray continually that our God will make you worthy of his call” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). To the Romans, he writes: “I continually mention you in my prayers” (Romans 1:9), and he comforts his friend Timothy with the words: “I remember you in my prayers constantly, night and day” (2 Timothy 1:3).

The two Greek terms that appear repeatedly in Paul’s letters are pantote and adialeiptos, which mean “always” and “without interruption.” These words make it clear that for Paul, prayer is not a part of living, but all of life, not a part of his thought, but all of his thought, not a part of his emotions and feelings, but all of them. Paul’s fervor allows no place for partial commitments, piecemeal giving, or hesitant generosity. He gives all and asks all.

This radicalism obviously raises some difficult questions. What does it mean to pray without ceasing? How can we live life, with its many demands and obligations, as an uninterrupted prayer? What about the endless row of distractions that intrude day after day? Moreover, how can sleep, needed moments of diversion, and the few hours in which we try to escape from the tensions and conflicts of life be lifted up into unceasing prayer? These questions are real and have puzzled many Christians who want to take seriously Paul’s exhortation to pray without ceasing.

One of the best-known examples of the desire for unceasing prayer is the nineteenth-century Russian peasant who wanted so much to be obedient to Paul’s call for uninterrupted prayer that he went from staretz to staretz (hermit to hermit) looking for an answer until he finally found a holy man who taught him the Jesus Prayer. He told the peasant to say thousands of times each day, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” In this way, the Jesus Prayer slowly became united with his breathing and heartbeat so that he could travel through Russia carrying his knapsack with the Bible, the Philokalia (an anthology of Eastern Christian mystical writings), and some bread and salt, living a life of unceasing prayer.

Although we are not nineteenth-century Russian peasants or pilgrims, we share the quest of the simple pilgrim: “How to pray without ceasing?” I want to answer this question not in the context of the wide, silent Russian prairies of a century ago but in the context of the restlessness of our contemporary Western society. I suggest that the practice of unceasing prayer is a threefold process: we first cry out to God with all our needs and requests. Then we turn our unceasing thoughts into continual conversation with God. Finally, we learn to listen to God in our hearts through a daily discipline of meditation and contemplative practice.

Henri Nouwen in Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith (New York: Harper One, 2006) excerpt from chapter 5.

My GTP work is going well with the delegation from Chile.

In my early morning reading in my room at the retreat I read a chapter, and this sentence in particular struck me: “Paul’s fervor allows no place for partial commitments, piecemeal giving, or hesitant generosity. He gives all and asks all.”

So, how do we come to a place of giving all and asking all?

We practice unceasing prayer. It starts with crying out, it leads us to conversation with God, and concludes with contemplation, reflecting on what God is teaching us. In plain terms, we acknowledge our weakness, He meets us there, and we go away transformed.

God desires that we abandon partial commitments, piecemeal giving, and hesitant generosity.

But the only way for us to do that is to acknowledge our weakness, to meet with Him to discover His all sufficiency, and then to consider what steps we must take to live and act on what is true. It’s a journey.

We only figure it out as we live it out that the path leads to life, freedom, and rich generosity.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. James 1:19-20

“Community as discipline is the effort to create a free and empty space among people where together we can practice true obedience. Through the discipline of community we prevent ourselves from clinging to each other in fear and loneliness, and clear free space to listen to the liberating voice of God… Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological make-up, or social status can bring us together but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other… I would like to describe one concrete form of this discipline of community. It is in the practice of listening together. In our wordy world, we usually spend our time together talking. We feel most comfortable in sharing experiences, discussing interesting subjects, or arguing about current issues. It is through a very active verbal exchange that we try to discover each other. But often we find that words function more as walls than as gates, more as ways to keep distance than to come close.”

Henri Nouwen in Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life (New York: HarperOne, 1981) 80-84.

As I serve brothers and sisters from Chile with the assistance of a translator from Guatemala this week, I am trying to create community by encouraging listening to one another to hear how God might teach us through one another.

Some may perceive me as having all the answers, and whilst I might share some content this week as a teacher, my focus is listening so that words don’t function as walls instead of gates.

Our generous service, whether paid or as volunteers, must create community through listening and loving. I may be attuned to this because I’ve failed so much with it in the past.

God help all of us create space where people can practice true obedience together and learn from each other what that looks like. Do this by your Holy Spirit we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10

“Friendship is one of the greatest gifts a human being can receive. It is a bond beyond common goals, common interests, or common histories. It is a bond stronger than sexual union can create, deeper than a shared fate can solidify, and it can be even more intimate than the bonds of marriage or community. Friendship is being with the other in joy and sorrow, even when we cannot increase the joy or decrease the sorrow. It is a unity of souls that gives nobility and sincerity to love. Friendship makes all of life shine brightly. Blessed are those who lay down their lives for their friends.”

Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 1997) reading for 7 January.

Today I will meet up with a friend, Peter Fiorello, executive director of Black Rock Retreat. We’ve collaborated in the Kingdom for more than a decade. We enjoy the mutually beneficial gift of friendship. We are devoted to each other.

We have talked for a couple years about traveling to Chile to serve Christian workers crying out for help like the Macedonian man in the vision Paul saw in Acts 16:9. They want assistance in biblical governance, ministry administration, and Christian fundraising.

Recently Peter had an idea. He reached out to me and shared it. “The camp has some resources. What if we fly these influential workers from Chile to USA and GTP helps train them in governance, administration, and partnership work?”

We prayed. They loved the idea. The rest is history. This is a beautiful picture of collaborative giving. We are combining the facilities, knowledge, and resources that we have to multiply stewards who will impact thousands through their service.

That’s the work of GTP. It’s going to be a long, complex, and rewarding week. Pray for me and my translator, Carla Archila of Guatemala, to help them understand and use a series of templates to build organizational capacity for fruitful ministry.

What about you? Do you have a friend with whom you share common interests? What if you teamed up to serve others generously so that your giving did not create dependency but built them up as disciples?

Ask the Spirit to guide you and call the person that comes to mind like Peter called me.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. John 15:9

“We are called to pray not because we feel like praying or because it gives us great insights, but simply because we want to be obedient, to listen to the voice that calls us beloved. The word listen in Latin is audire. If we listen with full attention in which we are totally geared to listen, it’s called ob-audire, and that’s where the word obedience comes from.

Jesus is the obedient one. That means He is total ear, totally open to the love of God. And if we are closed, we are surdus. That is the Latin word for deaf. The more “deaf” we get, the more absurdus we become, and an absurd life is precisely a life in which we no longer listen and are constantly distracted by all sorts of voices and lose touch with the truth that we are the beloved.

And as soon as we start to become spiritually deaf to the voice that calls us the beloved, we are going to look someplace else to make us the beloved. And that’s when we get into trouble. We are going to look for love, affirmation, or praise where we cannot find them and get hooked in all sorts of ways, whether it is alcohol, drugs, relationships, success in work, how people talk about us, or desire to have control over things. Prayer brings love alive among us.”

Henri Nouwen in A Spirituality of Living (Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust, 2011) 27-28.

For those who desire to serve as conduits of God’s generosity to a lost and hurting world, Nouwen reminds us today, echoing the prayer of Jesus, that we remain in the Father’s love.

We do this by prayer and listening. This propels us to obedience. Obedience causes us to participate in what God wants to happen. Failure to do so results in an absurd life that expends time and money on stuff that won’t satisfy.

In this light, Nouwen blesses us today with the reminder to pray and soak in the reality that we are the beloved. Listen and obey to abandon absurdity and position yourself for a life of generosity.

Early tomorrow I fly to Washington, D.C. to do a weeklong workshop on Governance, Administration, and Partnership for a Chilean delegation of Christian workers at Black Rock Retreat. I’d appreciate your prayers for a fruitful week.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Acts 20:35

“What a wonderful mystery this is! Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others. Although it often seems that people only give to receive, I believe that beyond all our desires to be appreciated, rewarded, and acknowledged, there lies a simple and pure desire to give… Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life…all of our life.”

Henri Nouwen in Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World (New York: Crossroad, 1992) 85

Why is giving better than receiving? I think, with Nouwen, that it is what God made us to do. We become beautiful people when we give. We find fulfillment when we give. We accomplish our purpose on the planet when we give.

At this time in USA, flowers are blooming. But they only bloom for a season. Think about the connection. The purpose of a flower is to bloom for a short time. This is just like our lives. We are only here a short time.

Father in heaven, empower us by your Spirit to give smiles, handshakes, kisses, embraces, words of love, gifts, and parts of our lives, so that we bloom like beautiful flowers for you. Hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:23-26

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

Henri Nouwen in Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2004) 38.

I have a good friend, Ken Sharp. I love him. He said on Sunday that he was discouraged and struggling in his faith. He’s had some rough times lately.

So, rather than give advice or offer solutions (which I have done more times than I can count), I went over to his place yesterday just to check in, to ask how he was doing, to ask about his wife whose been in the hospital for a long time, to read Psalm 73 together, and to pray. He said it meant a lot.

As you think about your generosity, consider giving a warm tender hand or a listening ear. Sit with someone who is struggling and love them well.

I am learning this is one of the greatest gifts we can give people. The paradox is that such gifts don’t cost us any money, and simultaneously, they are priceless to the receiver. Ask God today if there is someone who needs a friend who cares and for the Spirit.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24

“When I think back on the friendships, encounters, and confrontations of the past, I realize that islands of anger, bitterness, and resentment still lie hidden in my heart. And when I bring to mind all whom I personally know or about whom I have heard or read, I know how I divide them between those who are for me and those who are against me, those whom I like and those whom I do not like, those whom I want to be with and those whom I try to avoid at all costs.

My inner life is so filled with opinions, judgments, and prejudices about my “brothers and sisters” that real peace is still far away. As I think about Jesus’ words, I know that I must let go of all these divisive emotions and thoughts so that I can truly experience peace with all of God’s people. This means an unrestrained willingness to forgive and let go of old fears, bitterness, resentment, anger, and list and thus find reconciliation.

In this way, I can be a real peacemaker. My inner peace can be a source of peace for all I meet. I can then offer gifts on the altar of God as a testimony to this peace with my brothers and sisters. I have to start thinking about concrete ways to make peace with my brothers and sisters who have something against me. What do I have to lose? To make peace is to free myself from my easy judgments so that I can love my enemy and the God who holds me and my enemies together in the palm of His hand.”

Henri Nouwen in Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey (New York: Image, 1990) 141-142.

If I am vulnerable, on my journey I have accumulated lots of knowledge, and knowledge puffs up while love builds up. When puffed up I have, at times, held such strong opinions that I cared more about being right than about preserving human relationships.

If’ I’ve gone from sharing thoughts to convicting you, then join the club. With Nouwen, I have chosen the road to daybreak. That means walking toward the light beckons me to realize that God cares more about me reconciling my human relationships than receiving my heavenly gifts.

If you want to join me on this way, know that we can be real peacemakers who offer gifts as a testimony of the peace we have received and that we get to share. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And most importantly, God who is watching our giving, rejoices in our growth.