Boasting in weakness

The real training for service asks for a hard and often painful process of self-emptying. Training for service is not a training to become rich but to become voluntarily poor, not to fulfill ourselves but to empty ourselves, not to conquer God but to surrender to his saving power. If there is anything to boast about in this world, we should boast of our weakness. Our fulfilment is in offering emptiness, our usefulness in becoming useless, our power in becoming powerless. The movement of the Spirit that Christ has shown us is the movement in which we become less and less fearful and defensive and more and more open to the other and his world, even when it leads to suffering and death. This show that spirituality of the Christian is not only rooted in the reality of everyday life, but also transcends it by relying on the gift of God. We perceive life as a gift not to possess but to share. 

- Henry Nouwen -