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Letter from Earnest – February 2013

Henri J. M. Nouwen in his book “The Way of the Heart” quotes Thomas Merton – “Society, as regarded by the desert fathers, was a shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life. These were men who believed that to let one’s self drift along, passively accepting the tenants and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster.”

Mr. Nouwen continues by saying “This observation leads us straight to the core of the problem. Our society is not a community radiant with the love of Christ, but a dangerous network of domination and manipulation in which we can easily get entangled and lose our soul. The basic question is whether we ministers of Jesus Christ have not already been so deeply molded by the seductive powers of our dark world that we have become blind to our own and other people’s fatal state and have lost the power and motivation to swim for our lives.

Happy New Year! All of you wonderful friends – thank you for helping us to get through the year of 2012 and thank you for what we are going to accomplish in the year 2013. No doubt in your mind you are wondering, “How in the world can Earnest start the year off quoting such a blunt statement?” I had you read the paragraph at the beginning of the article because I wanted to get your attention.   I want to hit the floor running in 2013 and I am running for my life as are you; running to Jesus, running from the world. Let us pray that God will help us to not be content with the “same old, same old” and let us recognize that the world is very carefully trying to lull us into a position of comfort and complacency. We must fight to resist if we are to do all and be all we can be for Jesus in 2013 because, as Ezekiel 33:1-7 says, those of us who have received the light are responsible to share it.

Your prayers will be your greatest contribution to me, the Youth Horizons team, and the kids we serve in the coming year.

I am in your debt.

 

 

Earnest