Home

"Home is the center of my being where I can hear the voice that says, "you are my beloved in whom I am well pleased". Jesus made it clear that the same voice that he heard in the Jordan River and on Mount Tabor can be heard by me. He makes it clear that there is a home with the Father. But if I decide to keep control, if I go out into the world, I will keep running around asking everything, "Do you really love me?" I give all the power to the voices of the world. It is the world that defines me then. The world's love is full of ifs, 'yes I love you if you are good-looking, if you are intelligent, if you are well off, if you are educated, if you have connections, if you are productive'...endless ifs and it is not too hard to know when I have left home spiritually. Resentment, jealousy, desire for revenge, lust, greed, ambition, rivalry are all obvious signs that I have left home, that I am letting the world define me with its love full of ifs. But when I an home with the Father then I know I am the beloved, I can confront and console and admonish without any fear of rejection or need for affirmation, and I can suffer persecution without the need for revenge or recieve praise without using it as proof of my goodness."
-Henri Nouwen, Return of the Prdigal Son

I've finished memoirs of a Geisha. It's so good. Highly recommended.