Henri Nouwen was a professor at the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard for years. From a worldly perspective, letting go of the prestigious job at the Ive League universities to serve in a hidden community for disables doesn't make sense in many people's eyes. His writing reminds me that 生命的尊貴 (the nobility of life) lies not in the effectiveness of our lives or our work, but rather, on the fact that we are the beloved ones, however broken we may have felt.
Here are some of the lines that touched me especially. Often time, the lift pace is so fast that it prevents us from taking a deep good look about who we really are and what it means by loving the ones around us. It is when our self-worth is no longer dependent on our title and functionalities that we are forced to live out our true identity as the BELOVED ONE!
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- "May we all find the place, the place where God wants us to dwell and serve, trusting that is where we need to be . . . nowhere else. For there is no better place than the one God wants us to be at."
- "At first I had to keep asking myself and others, "Why have you asked me to do this? Why did I say yes? What am I doing here? Who is this stranger who is demanding such a big chuck of my time each day? . . . The answer was always the same: "So you can get to know Adam.""
- "How would I get to know him?" [Adam could not speak or even move without assistance]
- It usually took me two hours to get Adam up and out of his bedroom into bathroom, out of the bathroom into the kitchen, out of the kitchen into his wheelchair, and off to his day programme. When I had finally delivered him there, I felt a deep sense of relief and went to work, doing what I can do well: talking, dictating letters, counseling, making phone calls, leading meetings, giving sermons, presiding over ceremonies. That was the world where I felt at ease and capable.
- As I worked with Adam I began to see myself right in the centre of Day break. . . . All my life had been shaped by words, ideas, books and encyclopedias. But now my priorities were shifting. What was becoming important for me was Adam and our privileged time together when he offered me his body in total vulnerability, when he gave me himself . . .
- Adam kept 'telling' me in such a quiet way, "Just be with me and trust that this is where you have to be . . . nowhere else."
(Quoted from Adam p.31-36)