Are you in love with Jesus?

I first read Henri Nouwen's In the Name of Jesus for a class Church Leadership my junior year (taught by Eddie Sharp and one of my favorite classes I took at ACU, though I know Austin wouldn't agree, sorry bud). Since that time I have tried to reread the short book every year to sort of draw me back to the heart of God. Nouwen is such a gifted writer with a knack for putting deep truths, often concerning spiritual formation and ministry, in the simplest of terms. If you've never read Nouwen I would highly recommend diving into this book (you can pretty much read the whole thing in an hour or two). Here's an exert I reread today that is just beautiful:

This rejected, unknown, wounded Jesus simply asked, "Do you love me, do you really love me?" He whose only concern had been to announce the unconditional love of God had only one question to ask, "Do you love me?"

The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus? Perhaps another way of putting the question would be: Do you know the incarnate God? In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, cares, reaches out and wants to heal. In that heart there is no suspicion, no vindictiveness, no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred. It is a heart that wants only to give love and receive love in response. It is a heart that suffers immensely because it sees the magnitude of human pain and the great resistance to trusting the heart of God who wants to offer consolation and hope.

The Christian leader of the future is one who truly knows the heart of God as it has become flesh, "a heart of flesh," in Jesus. Knowing God's heart means consistently, radically, and very concretely to announce and reveal that God is love and only love, and that every time fear, isolation, or despair begins to invade the human soul, this is not something that comes from God. This sounds very simple and trite, but very people know they are loved without any condition or limits.
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Headed to Oklahoma tomorrow for our Spring Retreat. The whole weekend is centered around the theme LOST and we're really excited to see what God does. Please keep us in your prayers.
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pic of the day: