Living beyond blame or praise...

I'm loving the thoughts, stimulated by Nouwen, of living not influenced by human blame or praise to reflect the compassion of Jesus.

Jesus is called Emmanuel which means "God-with-us" (see Matthew 1: 22-23). The great paradox of Jesus' life is that he, whose words and actions are in no way influenced by human blame or praise but are completely dependent on God's will, is more "with" us than any other human being. Jesus' compassion, his deep feeling-with us, is possible because his life is guided not by human respect but only by the love of his heavenly Father. Indeed, Jesus is free to love us because he is not dependent on our love.
Mission and formation shaped by this fullness of life would be an amazing reflection of John 10:10

Comments

Graeme Smith said…
That is wonderful! Where did you read this?
2:58 PM
Gordon said…
It is a daily email from henrinouwen.org. But I suspect that it is from Bread for the Journey
9:39 AM
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