In the name of Jesus

Just finished reading this wonderful little book by Henri Nouwen, and honestly teared up a few times. The reminders he offers in it are pretty difficult to swallow, while at the same time being fairly revolutionary.

The book was written as a series of lectures that he delivered on Christian leadership in the 21st century. The more I read the more I wanted to read. The more I thought "yes! this is what we are all missing today. this is why church is broken."

Nouwen offers that many times we are tempted to lead, Jesus is really calling us to the servant mentality of allowing ourselves to be led. We should regularly end up going where we don't want to go, and experiencing things we don't want to experience. And I kept thinking it felt really familiar.

Sometimes I just ask Jesus to let me give up on being in ministry, but I am reminded that this is where he wants me. My theological reflection leads me to trust and follow, even thought sometimes it is incredibly hard. And after reading Nouwen, I have more hope that I am doing the right thing.

At the end of the book, he talks about how he took a man who is mentally retarded with him to his leadership event. The whole time they talked about "doing it together" and after Nouwen had finished speaking, his friend stood up to say a few words. Then his friend spent time meeting people and getting to know those in attendance. His friend was not particularly well-spoken, but the whole point of it was to do it together. Jesus wants us to let others participate in the ministry, even if sometimes they don't do a great job. And that's really humbling to me.