1. I have experienced something like what Julian calls a “revelation”. It wasn’t exactly like hers, as she longed for her revelation. I got into a really bad car accident over this past summer and I totaled my car; this experience changed my life forever. It wasn’t a revelation that I was planning for, but nonetheless it happened. I thought I was going to die in that accident, but by the grace of God I didn’t. I have now become a lot more aware of how short life is and how I need to live it to the fullest every day. You never know when your time is going to be up, and you need to be ready. Like Julian, my experience was also near death. Unlike Julian, I did not pray for my revelation like she did. We both had life-changing experiences from each of our revelations, though.
2. I have felt reluctant to ask God to provide the money in order for me to attend Spring Arbor University. I really wanted to attend this school, but my finances were simply not lining up in order to make it happen. I didn’t know if attending Spring Arbor University was what God had planned for me, so I felt reluctant asking him for the money if it was not what he had planned.
3. Julian longed for the sickness, so that afterwards, she would be purged by God’s mercy and live more to His glory because of the sickness. She wanted to become ill because she thought it was God’s gracious gift to her in a response for her wanting to know Him more. The illness would be a way for God to show his love and mercy through her, therefore creating a revelation.
4. It seems Julian claims that praying for the “goodness of God” is praying to him for his goodness. In this way, we do pray about the intermediaries in this world, but we just simply pray and thank Him for His goodness. She says that we should do this because if we pray for His goodness, it is full and complete, and there will be nothing lacking. We will not need to pray for anything else, because everything will be included when we pray for His goodness.
5. Psalm 8 teaches us that the nature of God is majestic over all of the earth. It also says that the Lord is sovereign and he gives humans the power over his creation to rule it. Humans are of much importance. It says God has crowned them with glory and honor, and we are mortals yet he loves and cares for us.
Henry J. M. Nouwen
1. It is a gift because the Holy Spirit was given to us; and it is something that I had to accept in order to receive it. Although it is a gift, it is also hard work on our part. It can be hard at times to spend time with God every day praying. It can also be hard to share God’s love with people we may not necessarily want to or it is inconvenient to.
2. There are many things in this world that are filling my life, giving me little to no time to listen. Two of the biggest things are school and work. If I am not in class or doing homework, I am working one of my two jobs. I think that I have become too busy and my life is too full with worldly things. I am distracted and filled with everything but God it seems at times. There are a lot of smaller things preventing me from listening as well like; social networking, music, talking on the phone, sleep, and even eating. I need to try and get a lot of those distracting and “filling” things out of my life so I can take time to listen to what God has to say to me.
3. It is important for us to deal with our inner distractions so that they do not manifest and become larger, and influence us on a daily level. We need to deal with our inner chaos often and get rid of all of our protective distractions. Solitude is a crucial part in doing that, because without distractions we have to deal with ourselves and solve our inner problems. This is almost impossible to do without time set aside for solitude without distractions.
4. He uses the analogy of visitors that are no longer welcome to compare to a time of solitude, but he makes it encouraging for newcomers to spiritual