Mystery in Community

Posted September 28th, 2005

I got this quote from www.thinkexist.com, where you can sign up to receive daily quotes. Some of them are not very meaningful to me, but this one was.

Jean Vanier is the person who started L’arche Communities, homes for severely mentally retarded adults. I’ve read one or two of his books, after learning about his work through Henri Nouwen.

The quote has application for leaders, and humans.
“Community begins in mystery and ends in administration. Leaders move away from people and into paper.”

Since I’m surrounded by paper this morning, this quote spoke to me. Do I use more of my gifts with people or paper? The mystery of people in community is certainly more enchanting that the administration of paper and electronic data.

The simple question is where do I spend my time. Henri Nouwen, who spent the last years of his life working at a L’arche community, said he was constantly being interrupted by people while he was writing, reading, thinking, and meditating. He said the finally realized that the interruptions were his work. Nouwen recognized he needed to respond to the people, not the paper.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2005 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Observations.