For me it is amazing to experience daily the radical difference between cynicism and joy.\u00c2\u00a0 Cynics seek darkness wherever they go.\u00c2\u00a0 They point always to approaching dangers, impure motives, and hidden schemes.\u00c2\u00a0 They call trust naive, care romantic, and forgiveness sentimental.\u00c2\u00a0 They sneer at enthusiasm, ridicule spiritual fervor, and despise charismatic behavior.\u00c2\u00a0 They consider themselves realists who see reality for what it truly is and who are not deceived by “escapist emotions.”\u00c2\u00a0 But in belittling God’s joy, their darkness only calls forth more darkness.<\/p>\n
People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it.\u00c2\u00a0 They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness.\u00c2\u00a0 They point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real presence of God.\u00c2\u00a0 They discover that there are people who heal each other’s wounds, forgive each other’s offenses, share their possessions, foster the spirit of community, celebrate the gifts they have received, and live in constant anticipation of the full manifestation of God’s glory.<\/p>\n
Every moment of each day I have the chance to choose between cynicism and joy.\u00c2\u00a0 Every thought I have can be cynical or joyful.\u00c2\u00a0 Every word I speak can be cynical or joyful.\u00c2\u00a0 Every action can be cynical or joyful.\u00c2\u00a0 Increasingly I am aware of all these possible choices, and increasingly I discover that every choice for joy in turn reveals more joy and offers more reason to make life a true celebration in the house of the Father.<\/p>\n
— Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, <\/em>p. 117-118<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For me it is amazing to experience daily the radical difference between cynicism and joy.\u00c2\u00a0 Cynics seek darkness wherever they go.\u00c2\u00a0 They point always to approaching dangers, impure motives, and hidden schemes.\u00c2\u00a0 They call trust naive, care romantic, and forgiveness sentimental.\u00c2\u00a0 They sneer at enthusiasm, ridicule spiritual fervor, and despise charismatic behavior.\u00c2\u00a0 They consider themselves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-joy","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}