|
Written by Grant Nuss
|
|
Friday, 27 August 2010 19:26 |
|
Sean and I, on our way in to college this morning, were speaking about our future possibilities after our college experience. We moved into discussing what potential employers looked for when hiring people, touching on what I looked for when filling vacancies during my secular career. A good question. The norm for the employer is to be driven by the potential employees past experience, and how that would fit the vacancy. How many years the person has spent in a like position, like experience, and their letters of recommendation. The thought was that, how often, in this process, do employers end up with a ‘square peg in a round hole’? Secondly, at times when there is a vacancy, the tendency is for employers to try and fill the gap with the first available person who seems as though they will be able to do the job. It is as if we’re in a hurry to make an appointment. Not clever! What happens is that we are more than often left with a misfit. Sean asked what I had normally done as the employer in these circumstances. I found that the best selections that I ever made was when I spent more time, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, assessing the persons, heart, character, attitude, and personality. This was as opposed to merely ‘ticking off a box’ of their supposed attributes. The Holy Spirit’s guidance, as a potential Christian employer, is by far our most foolproof gauge. Utilize him-you will be surprised? |
|
Written by Grant Nuss
|
|
Wednesday, 25 August 2010 14:51 |
|
Herewith Richard Rohr's devotional today:When Christianity aligns itself with power (and the mindset of power) there’s simply very little room for the darkness of faith; that spacious place where God is actually able to form us. So when we speak of paradox, I’m trying to open up that space where you can “fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31), because YOU are not in control. That is always the space of powerlessness, vulnerability, and letting go. Faith happens in that wonderful place, and hardly ever when we have all the power and can hold no paradoxes. Thus you see why faith will invariably be a minority and suspect position. |
|
Written by Grant Nuss
|
|
Wednesday, 18 August 2010 15:51 |
|
Richard Rohr suugests the following as to what silence teaches. This is one good thing the silence has taught me: our lives are useable by God. We need not always be effective, but only transparent and vulnerable. Then we are instruments, no matter what we do. God takes it from there, and there is not much point in comparing who is better, right, higher or lower, or supposedly saved. We are all partial images slowly coming into focus, as long as we allow and filter the Light and Love of God, which longs to shine through us—as us! |
|
|
Written by Grant Nuss
|
|
Monday, 16 August 2010 09:00 |
|
Herewith Richard Rohr's devotional today. Prayer is largely just being silent: holding it instead of even talking it through; offering it instead of fixing it by words and ideas; loving it as it is instead of understanding it fully. That may be impractical, but the way of faith is not the way of efficiency. Much is a matter of listening and waiting, and enjoying the expansiveness that comes from such willingness to hold. It is like carrying and growing a baby: all women do is wait and trust, and hopefully eat good food, and the baby is born. |
|
Written by Grant Nuss
|
|
Friday, 13 August 2010 06:24 |
Was David? Was my first question when reading Richard Rohr's question today. What do you think?Most religions seem to begin with the assumption that God is good. But then the believers look at the reality in front of them, and there begins the most unnerving problem: Why does the just person suffer? In the Book of Job this whole problem is stretched to its limits. Job is described at the outset as a just and good man too, and yet he is not afraid to threaten and curse God for what seems like God’s toleration of unjust suffering! He even puts God on trial. And God takes it, and even says Job is right! This really does show us that God is very good indeed, and humble besides. Humans can be in an actual living relationship with this kind of God. |
|
Written by Grant Nuss
|
|
Thursday, 12 August 2010 06:58 |
Richard Rohr's question of the day-always insightful!Our usual definitions of God depict him as omnipotent, infinite, perfect in every way. Yet if the suffering Jesus is the image and revelation of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), this is totally at odds with all the other philosophical and theological definitions of a supreme being. Jesus doesn’t fit. Even after two thousand years, it is hard to realize what a revolutionary symbol Jesus is. He basically turned theology upside down. He said, in effect: “Who you think God is, God isn’t.” You can’t know this merely by study or theology or religion, but only through painful encounters with the living God where you feel like you are dying and yet you do not die. Then you experience another kind of life, another kind of freedom. Christians call this new home the shared life of the risen Christ. It is a different “morphogenetic field,” and only those who live there are equipped to talk about Jesus or the Gospel. |
|
Written by Grant Nuss
|
|
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 07:15 |
Richard Rohr's question today is arguably one that many if not all of us ask ourselves at one time or another.We live in a finite world where everything is dying, shedding its strength. This is hard to accept, and all our lives we look for exceptions to it. We look for something strong, undying, and infinite. Religion tells us that something is God. Great, we say, we’ll attach ourselves to this strong God. Then this God comes along and says, “Even I suffer. Even I participate in the finiteness of this world.” Thus Clare’s image of God was not an “almighty” and strong God, but in fact a poor, vulnerable, and humble one like Jesus. This is at the heart of the Franciscan worldview. The enfleshment and suffering of Jesus is saying that God is not apart from the trials of humanity. God is not aloof. God is not a mere spectator. God is not merely tolerating or even healing all human suffering. Rather, God is participating with us—in all of it—the good and the bad! I wonder if people can avoid becoming sad and cynical if they do not know this? |
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 10 |
NEWS
