Tuesday Tidings, August 18, 2026

Father Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996)

Dearest Members of Bethlehem,

“The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people…’” -Luke 18:11

In his book, Reflection on the Christian Life, Henri Nouwen wrote that, “Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” In my estimation, that’s a glorious and divinely inspired bit of wisdom.

But, for some of us “being human” is not as easy as it sounds, in fact there are those who strive mightily to defy their humanity, to somehow be “super human.” Before we can decide just how comfortable we are with our humanity, let’s consider this…

What does it mean to be human, at least in most cases?

It means, that you will forget someone’s name at the most inopportune moment; it will also mean that you forget the one thing that you actually went to the grocery store for.

It means that you will not always “say the right thing,” or even the say the right thing in the right way.

It means that you will inevitably “get old,” both in terms of aging, and in terms of waning coolness or relevance.

It means that there will be times when you will be much more defensive and self-centered than you need to be.

It means your skill as a driver of a motor vehicle will improve, peak, and then decline.

It means, ironically, that your ears will gradually get bigger, but you’ll gradually lose your hearing.

It means that world notions of perfection will ultimately elude you.

Now, there are two ways that we can go with this humanity thing:

We can deny its vicissitudes and grow increasingly frustrated with our humanity, eventually projecting all of our unhealthy and unreasonable expectations on the fully human persons around us.

Or…

We could embrace the grace that is readily available to we feeble humans, be transformed by it, and then tenderly share that forgiveness with others as an encouragement, while simultaneously empathizing with the plight of their humanity.

I suppose you can guess which of the above Father Nouwen and I are recommending.

Question for reflection: How often do we take the time to consider something from another person’s point of view?

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Dan

God of light and life, you bless us with everything we need to find purpose and meaning in each of our days. May we be ever-thankful for the gifts you have given, and be consistently enthusiastic about sharing those blessings with others. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.