It’s been a minute since I’ve posted here. 14 months or so. A lot has happened since.
There was the whole Biden thing. There was Harris. There was an election. There was (is) what’s going on in Gaza. There is Urkaine. There is Iran.
Brian Wilson died.
Henri Nouwen’s reminder is still there: ““If you know you are the Beloved, you can live with an enormous amount of success and an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity. Because your identity is that you are the Beloved… “
I’ve just spent time in the Boundary Waters. That sounds like the name of a Nouwen book, actually. The boundary is meant to be between the US and Canada, but there’s a lot more to it.
Be good to others. Be good to yourself. Get help with the details.
(love & mercy)
Chris Cocca 
my dear friend Chris: re: quote from Henri Nouwen and your recent Thoughts for Today (and every day):
Both of us might be out of physical sight and presence, but we and others are NOT out of Mind (capped because is it God’s Divine Mind). Our identity is as a Child of God, a follower of Jesus the Christ; and full-time employees of God.
As such, we are required, and yes- obligated, to share Love / love and Mercy- mercy, divine and human.
Tod Bolsinger PhD , Fuller Theological Seminary the school’s vice president for vocation and formation and assistant professor of practical theology, notes in “Canoing the Mountains” that we identify as a human position. In many instances, we identify so strongly that we become that identity and lose ours. (Yes, Chris- as you know, this is what happened to me in some of my church positions. I became the role and lost my identity as God’s child and employee.)
Our sense of identity should be GOD directed, not human directed in the guise of God’s will. We have God’s requirements. We are to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. THY will be done, not our human will.
Bolsinger states that when you lose your core, your deepest core identity, then you stop having something to offer the world.
I encourage everyone, and I include us in this, to discover our core identity, and then to share that identity in mission to all.
Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I’ve heard of that book but haven’t read it. I just got back from a canoe trek in the Boundary Waters, so it seems like good timing.
“Bolsinger states that when you lose your core, your deepest core identity, then you stop having something to offer the world.
I encourage everyone, and I include us in this, to discover our core identity, and then to share that identity in mission to all.”
This sticks out to me. I think when we lose our identity, we really do struggle to contribute, even to our own forward momentum. We get stuck.
Sometimes, that happens because of a positive experience (I’m thinking of the loss of self after truly transcendent experiences, and the reformation of self that happens after… the dark nights of the soul that are only dark because you’ve been in so much light). In those moments, too, we struggle. It’s almost like muscle failure, and the rest after exertion that helps build back stronger.
Thank you for sharing!
The Light ALWAYS is there- we don’t always see or recognize it as Light-
Remember Leonard Cohen’s “Ring the bells -”
“There’s a crack in everything. That is how the light gets in.”
On July 4- look at the Liberty Bell and recall how that light got in.
Apply it to (your/ our) life / lives/.
Personal note to you, Chris, from Jane :
Bolsinger’s book is a quick but succinct read. It was required reading for a crossroads course. Timing was spot on – right after the “fall” from church consistory’s “grace” (now there’s another subject ). Chapter 13 on sabotage (in the church!) helped me so much.
Continue your great work!
Jane
thank you, same to you! also, I used that Leonard Cohen quote in liturgy recently and thought of you!