Henri Nouwen: A friend who cares

“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.”

Henry Nouwen in Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1974) 36.

Today I make the long journey home from Manila to Denver to be reunited with person who “means the most” to me: my wife, Jenni. She embodies generosity as “a friend who cares” through how she loves people in every day and through her soul care ministry.

“We Westerners preached Christ with our lips, with our actions we brought the slavery of Mammon. We are more guilty than the infidels: for to those that know the will of God and do it not, the greater the punishment.”

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in 7 January 1953 letter to Don Giovanni Calabria as recounted in The Quotable Lewis ed. Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root (Carol Stream: Tyndale, 1990) 91.

I found this gem reading Lewis online while I was exploring the importance of “sharing” in his thinking while sitting here in my hotel in Manila. Westerners often criticize the ideologies in the East, and in snippet of personal correspondence, Lewis rightly exposes the sin of the West: slavery to Mammon.

Do me a favor, Westerners. Should this describe you: eager to preach the gospel of Christ but not willing to live out His teachings with regard to money. Shape up, or please, abandon the faith and serve Mammon, for in the words of Jesus, you can’t serve both! Should you find this too harsh, remember Lewis said it first.

Wes Willmer and I were asked to deliver two more seminars today on faithful administration/governance and fruitful/sustainable ministry. In the end, the only fruitful model for doing God’s work is not Eastern/Western, but abandoning the world’s way and choosing to follow faithfully what the Word says. On that path, God sustains it.

“Avarice starves its possessor to fatten those who come after, and who are eagerly awaiting the demise of the accumulator.”

Fulke Greville (1554-1628), poet and statesman, in Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical, compiled by Charles Noel Douglas (London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1917) 136.

Today I had the privilege of preaching at Cosmopolitan Church in Manila on the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. In that text the unfaithful steward lost what he had and it was given to the faithful. He hoarded in fear because he did not know the Master, while faithful stewards show their faith by how they use the Master’s money.

Where do you fit in that story? If the Master were to return today, are you ready to give an account for your stewardship? Or are those around you praying that the Lord will redistribute the resources that you have failed to put in play? Here in the Philippines, God’s stewards don’t have much, but they appear eager to put to work what the Master has given them.

“God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry. In the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality. Ever since we had the vision God has been at work, getting us into the shape of the ideal, and over and over again we escape from His hand and try to batter ourselves into our own shape.”

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), Scottish author and pastor, in My Utmost for His Highest reading for 6 July.

As I sit in Philippines and pray for God’s servants here, I felt led to explore “vision” in the thinking of Oswald Chambers. In so doing I came upon this remarkable reading. How true it is! We see something, a vision of what God desires, and then we try to make it happen, when God is the only one who can do that. God has given the leaders here a vision for forming CCTA in the Philippines (comparable to ECFA in the USA).

Pray with Wes and me that our efforts will encourage them to move to the place where He can trust them with the veritable reality of that vision. In other words, He has given them the vision to launch CCTA and will help them do, in His time, as they trust in Him.

To this end, Wes and I did two seminars today: one on faithful administration and governance (linked to the content of The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes) and the other on the integration of faith and fundraising (associated with the material from The Sower: Redefining the Ministry of Raising Kingdom Resources).

How about you? Has God been generous to give you a vision for something? Have you strained at trying to make it happen and been battered into shape to realize that it will happen in God’s time as you focus on Him?

“It is impossible to conceive any contrast more entire and absolute than that which exists between a heart glowing with love of God and a heart in which the love of money has cashiered all sense of God—His love, His presence, His glory.”

Richard Fuller (1804-1876) one of the founders of the Southern Baptist movement in Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical, compiled by Charles Noel Douglas (London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1917) 139.

Does your heart glow and overflow with the love of God, with His peace, and with His glory, or has love of money consumed you and cashiered all sense of God in your life? What’s this malady look like?

All your thoughts are focused on how you can sustain yourself, and sort your personal, family, and/or ministry needs. If that’s you, perhaps mediate on Matthew 6:25-34 because your Heavenly Father knows you need those things, but He wants you to chase after Him, which will leave you full and not empty.

Today we met with ministry administrators in Manila. It could not have gone better. We asked lots of questions and had rich conversations. We felt the presence of the Holy Spirit with us guiding the discussions regarding the launching of the Christian Council for Transparency and Accountability (CCTA) for the Philippines. We are off to a good start and appreciate your continued prayers for us.

“My brethren, surely the time has come for us to return to the Lord’s plan. Among us there are children to be clothed, widows to be aided, and afflicted ones to be cared for. As you draw near to the poor, the Savior will come near to you.”

George C. Larimer (1838-1904) a New England pastor in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895) 26.

Shortly Wes Willmer and I are scheduled to arrive in Manila. There are many poor people in the Philippines. As we draw near to them, pray with us that we experience our Lord Jesus Christ in a powerful way.

But you don’t have to leave the country to minister to the poor. They are all around us, and will always be with us (cf. Matthew 26:11). Ask God to show you someone in need to whom you can minister this week according “to the Lord’s plan!”

“Open your hands, ye whose hands are full! The world is waiting for you! The whole machinery of the Divine beneficience is clogged by your hard hearts and rigid fingers. Give and spend, and be sure that God will send; for only in giving and spending do you fulfill the object of His sending.”

Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819-1881) American novelist and poet recounted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895) 25.

Do you have resources stored up on earth that need to be put in play to fulfill “the object of His sending?” As Holland aptly states it: “the world is waiting.” For God so loved the world that He gave… So what are you waiting for?

My mentor and friend, Dr. Wes Willmer, and I will travel about half way around the world to help catalyze the launching of the Christian Council for Transparency and Accountability (CCTA) in Philippines from 7-13 October 2015.

Please pray for safe travel to Tokyo (where we will meet up) and then Manila, for God to give us ears to listen well, for fruitful coaching and trainings, and for God’s blessing on our families back home.

Why go serve CCTA and help launch this? When ministries are transparent and accountable, people more readily open their hands in generosity! They are more eager to “give and spend” to fulfill “the object of His sending.”

“The sweetest life is to be ever making sacrifices for Christ; the hardest life a man can lead on earth, the most full of misery, is to be always doing his own will and seeking to please himself.”

Edward Henry Bickersteth (1825-1906) English bishop as recounted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895) 534.

The life lived for Jesus is full, while the life lived for self is empty. Sacrifices don’t parch but enrich believers. The sweetest life truly is the one that ever makes sacrifices for Christ!

The “Exploring Generosity” Alpha Iowa event went well last night. I am heading home this morning from a fruitful weekend in Des Moines and Ankeny. It was sweet! Thanks for your prayers.

“Love is the greatest thing that God can give us, for He Himself is love; and it is the greatest thing we can give to God, for it will also give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours.”

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) English cleric as recounted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895) 392.

Generosity starts with receiving God’s love and giving Him our love, which includes all we are and all we have. “We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

This idea is at the core of our “Exploring Generosity” event in Ankeny, Iowa, tonight. Pray it goes well.

“The essential elements of giving are power and love—activity and affection—and the consciousness of the race testifies that in the high and appropriate exercise of these is a blessedness greater than any other.”

Mark Hopkins (1813-1878), one of the four principle investors in the Grand Pacific Railroad, as recounted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895) 5.

While this is not the place to share this morning’s sermon (I’ll deliver that at Prairie Ridge Church in Ankeny, Iowa), the first point in my message on generosity is love. The Apostle Paul states that without love, our giving is worthless (1 Corinthians 13:3) which is why he reminds us to do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:14).

Hopkins helped build the railroad across the prairies during the gold rush. While others were intoxicated with having wealth, he at least understood the essential elements of giving it. He was widely known for his wisdom. Sadly, though thrifty and generous, he died unexpectedly without a will.

Want to grow in generosity? Exercise your power with love, and do it while you can!