I’ve been reflecting upon the particular loneliness that comes from a loveless marriage……
Henri Nouwen talks about loneliness, pain, brokenness, suffering and I agree with him that precisely in the depth of the aching IS—> the gateway right into the very embrace of the ONE who loves me.
Quoted from Henri Nouwen tape Who are we? Exploring our Christian Identity
“Befriend your loneliness, pick up your cross … Precisely where we are painful, precisely where we are suffering there is the gateway that leads us to something new…if we are willing to embrace our brokenness we will discover that in the midst of all this pain there is joy… “
Categories: Nouwen · Who I am in Christ · intimacy
from Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller (relates to some reflection on “intimacy” in my marriage posted here):
I started asking myself why Moses would say five times that people were naked before the Fall, but after the Fall they went around with clothes on… Here is what I think Moses was saying: Man is wired so he gets his glory (his security, his understanding of value, his feeling of purpose, his feeling of rightness with his Maker, his security for eternity) from God, and this relationship is so strong, and God’s love is so pure, that Adam and Eve felt no insecurity at all, so much so that they walked around naked and didn’t even realize they were naked. But when that relationship was broken, they knew it instantly. All of their glory, the glory that came from God, was gone…
I used to think that when the Fall happened, man started lusting, getting angry, getting jealous, coveting, stealing, lying, and cheating because, in the absence of God, he became a bad person…
And then it hit me how awful it must have been for Adam and Eve… to have been tricked by Satan into breaking their relationship with God.
You and I have it easier. We were born this way. But I remember loving a girl back in Colorado and having her explain to me she didn’t feel the same and how for a year I lived in the attic of an old house in Portland, feeling an ache and emptiness in my heart I thought would never mend…
And this feeling, this feeling must have been so much more painful for Adam and Eve, this feeling of having an infinite amount of love pouring through their lives and then its’s suddenly gone… I wondered at how terrible it must have felt, at the fear of no longer feeling God, at the ache of emptiness and the sudden and horrifying awareness of self. God have mercy.
Categories: brokenness · intimacy
