On a New Year, Wisdom from Henri Nouwen, and Making Space for Change
A Note from Me
The new year is a natural check-in for me and my Rule of Life. It’s not a chance to reinvent everything, but a moment to look at the spiritual practices that I’m training with. So I pull out my Rule of Life and sit with it for a couple days—reading through what I’ve been working toward, noticing which practices are giving life, which ones I need to scale back or let go of. Sometimes these yearly reviews are encouraging. Sometimes less so.
Either way, I try to let the review be honest.
There’s no guilt in releasing practices. No shame in trimming down ones that turned out to be too ambitious. And there’s joy in adding a new practice that I sense the Spirit may be inviting me into. One year it was volunteering at the soup kitchen downtown. Another year it was lengthening my breath prayer from three minutes to four.
Again, the point isn’t to overhaul everything in January. It’s to remember that life with Jesus is a long journey—marked by starts and stops, missteps, and new realities. Of course, you don’t need a new year to make these kinds of changes, but it is an ideal time to pause, reflect, and recalibrate.
So this year, I’m keeping what’s working and releasing what isn’t. And I’ll stay open to what God might be inviting me into next—whether it’s a simple tweak, or a recommitment to keep walking the same path.
A Voice from the Past
“A Rule offers ‘creative boundaries within which God’s loving presence can be recognized and celebrated.’ It does not prescribe but invite, it does not force but guide, it does not threaten but warn, it does not instill fear but points to love. In this it is a call to freedom, freedom to love.“
—Henri Nouwen, Rule for a New Brother1
A Question to Carry
What spiritual practice might you release this year to make space for something new?
Staying open to the next step,
–Jon
P.S. If this kind of seasonal review resonates, I’ll be leading a three-hour virtual workshop with Renovaré on Cultivating a Rule of Life. We’ll explore the wisdom behind a Rule and spend time shaping a living framework suited to your current season.
The workshop is offered twice—Thursday, January 29 (6–9 PM EST) and Saturday, January 31 (12–3 PM EST).
Nouwen, Henri J. M. Back-cover endorsement of H. van der Looy, Rule for a New Brother. Templegate Publishers, 1997.
Noewen wisdom … 🤍