Page 161 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II

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This wonderful chapter is basically all about the longest journey in the world,
from our heads to the human heart, from knowledge that is learned in the
outer world, to inner wisdom that is garnered from reflecting on our
experience of life in that world.

The core of that journey will be to arrive at the very reason for our existence
on this planet: what the will of God is for us, who God wants us to be, and
what God wants us to do. Neglecting this challenge leaves us stranded in a
superficial and superfluous realm and never really encountering the depths
of our own existence.

This journey involves a radical self-awareness of what lies within our
thoughts, emotions, attitudes, personal qualities, and assets. It includes our
shadow side: painful emotions, defects of character, perhaps even
addictions. In the end, faith in our loving creator, God, and especially in
Jesus as the Word made flesh, leads us to discover our need for
forgiveness and healing. We enter the paradox of contemplative faith, where
the less we do, the more God can do within us.

a 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; John 20:29; Proverbs 17:24; 1 Samuel 16:7;
c
b Colossians 3:16; James 3:17; Exodus 14:14; Psalm 37:7-9.