i suppose i don't really get the point. silence is good, but with too much silence you retreat into yourself. i've done it before. it's not a good thing. i'm not sure this all is what this guy is trying to say, but that's the danger with taking things out of context. it comes out as almost pure law, and that's wrong. i didn't see any real gospel in that passage at all. but that's me.
i have to disagree...cordelia_speaksApril 12 2005, 19:05:21 UTC
i have had three months of "silence", which has just recently begun to feel as though it's beginning to relent. i think there's a difference between filling one's life with entertainment and filling it with... i don't know... good stuff... friends, laughter, God's amazing creation, music...
also, a vocation, whatever it may be... isn't that something which God gives us to keep us from being idle and wallowing in despair?
silence seems like death to me. my heart doesn't have the capacity to dig itself out of the depths and create it's own voices of peace, joy, hope, love, etc. those voices come from other sources... ultimately THE source. but looking into myself to find those things brings only despair, in my experience.
Yeah, perhaps the perspective is different between reading an excerpt of the book on LJ as opposed to reading through the rest of the book until that point. Nouwen was a pastor who taught at some prestigious universities and served as pastor at a community of those with mental disabilities. He's way intelligent, but his perspective has been known to be "hit or miss" in some cases
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silence is good, but with too much silence you retreat into yourself. i've done it before. it's not a good thing. i'm not sure this all is what this guy is trying to say, but that's the danger with taking things out of context. it comes out as almost pure law, and that's wrong. i didn't see any real gospel in that passage at all.
but that's me.
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also, a vocation, whatever it may be... isn't that something which God gives us to keep us from being idle and wallowing in despair?
silence seems like death to me. my heart doesn't have the capacity to dig itself out of the depths and create it's own voices of peace, joy, hope, love, etc. those voices come from other sources... ultimately THE source. but looking into myself to find those things brings only despair, in my experience.
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you've got some incredible timing. I truly appreciate the sentiment here. You have done me a wonderful favor. Thanks.
-Nicole
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