Lenten Reflections from Henri Nouwen

Ran across this today in Henri Nouwen's Creative Ministry. See what you think. I have not tried to make the language inclusive.

So the identity of the pastor, as it becomes visible in his pastoral care, is born from the intangible tension between self-affirmation and self-denial, self-fulfillment and self-emptying, self-realization and self-sacrifice. There are periods in life in which the emphasis is more on the one than on the other, but in general it seems that as a man becomes more mature he will become less concerned with girding himself and more willing to stretch out his hands and to follow Him who found His life by losing it.