Finished Wounded Healer

I just finished up the Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen. I think this is the third or fourth book of his I've read and unfortunately it's probably my least favorite.



As always though, Nouwen still had some great thoughts along the way so it was worth the read. The first chapter was probably the best.



My real interest in the book was his thoughts about how to reach people. Here's what I got out of it anyway.



1. I believe it was the philospher Martin Buber who coined the phrase, "make the personal present". That was one of the first things that came to mind while reading the book. So often in our interactions and conversations we fail to truly listen, understand, and recognize the person with which we're engaged. Instead we're focused on what we're going to say next. We're focused on getting to our agenda our point. We're focused on meeting their need as we see it, which could be very far from the truth. We need to recognize the infinite in each individual (I think that's another Buber phrase). We never truly know everything about someone or their situation. How can we help people if we don't understand them.



2. Our wounds are gifts from God for the healing of others. It really shocked me when Nouwen described our wounds as gifts. Many of us despise our wounds, me being one. We hate the fact that we struggle and fail and are broken in certain aspects of our life. For us it sucks. But for others it can certainly be a gift. Just think of Jesus his brokenness made way for our wholeness. His wounds for our healing, his suffering for our salvation. When we share the experiences caused by our wounds it brings about healing to us as well as others. I don't know what's better, the knowledge of how to get over or through something or rather the relief that someone understands what you're going through. I think the latter. Anyway...I love how God takes what we think are negatives and makes them positives.

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