The Mentoring In Henri Nouwen's Return Of The Prodigal Son

Nouwen took a huge risk by becoming this translucent about the things that he battled. Some could have wondered how he could claim to be so close to God when many knew he was struggling with so much baggage. However, he reminds his audience through his book, Return of the Prodigal Son, that “people who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness. They point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real presence of God” (117).

Henri Nouwen did not view his darkness

“Henri’s mentoring helped me open up my life to receive gifts of peace, joy, courage, hope, and lots of trust” (Hernandez 39). Lywood had very little confidence in herself to become a strong Christian spiritual leader, yet Nouwen showed her the way. Christians need to realize that they can make a difference by putting aside the thoughts of being not good enough, or having too much baggage themselves to really help others when they can hardly help themselves. But it is “the mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God...people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow Him wherever He guides them, always trusting that, with Him, they will find life and find it abundantly” (Nouwen

Many get caught up with thinking that a person can not be a leader if they do not have a following of thousands. They have their doubts of inadequacy, which is a demon that Nouwen himself faced. But Scrutton is deeply convinced that he was a “pastor who saw his own sufferings as a source of his capacity to help others (Scrutton 101). To doubt is to be vulnerable, but through Nouwen’s book In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership he states that “the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self” (17). One might think that book is only for those in church leadership, but its content is relevant to anyone and everyone who is serious about their spiritual walk. He never talks about a list of requirements that God looks for in being a spiritual or Christian leader in this world; rather, Nouwen points only the only God seeks from Christians is their own self. Whatever gifts, talents, or possessions that a person has to offer is what God wants. With this, it is possible for Him to use those for spiritual leadership opportunities, which come in a variety of forms—such as mentoring others and leading them to