Am I being foolish enough?

I finished reading Brennan Manning's book The Importance of Being Foolish - How to Think Like Jesus. Let me just share some quotes that have touched my heart and caused me to stop and ponder. How does this translate into my life? Am I thinking like Jesus?

Behind people's grumpiest poses or most puzzling defense mechanisms, behind their dignified airs, coarseness or sneers, behind their silence or their curses, Jesus saw a little child who hadn't been loved enough and who had ceased growing because those around him had ceased believing in him. "In this sense," Adrian Van Kaam writes, "Christ, and later the apostles, speak often about the faithful as children, no matter how tall, rich, clever and successful they may be. For behind each one's strength is hiding a fallen person in need of redemption, a person precious in the eyes of God because of the unique treasure he is meant to be in time and eternity."

-pg. 101

…the fundamental secret of Jesus in relation to his disciples: his sovereign respect for their dignity. They are people, not toys, functions or occasions for personal compensation. In Luke’s account of the Passion, he notes that after Peter’s third denial of Jesus, “the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter” (Luke 22:61). In that look, the reality of recognition is disclosed. Peter knows that no one has ever loved him as Jesus does. The man who he has confessed as the Christ, the Son of the living God, looks into his eyes, sees the transparent terror there, watches him act out the dreadful drama of his security addiction and loves him.

The love of Jesus for Peter lay in his complete and unconditional acceptance of him. We who so automatically place conditions on lour love (“If you really loved me you would…”) fail to see that this is an exchange, not unconditional love. (We tack on one of our addictions to finish the sentence.)

In Jesus’ reaction to Peter we see that no man was ever freer of pressures, conventions or addictions. Jesus was so liberated from the dominating barrage of desire, demands, expectations, need and inflexible emotional programming that he could accept the unacceptable. He did not have to resort to screams, vicious attacks, or undue threats. He communicated his deepest feelings to Peter by a look. And that look transformed and recreated Peter: “He went outside and wept bitterly”(Luke22:62)

Compassion means that when you empathize with the predicament of another person, you send out the signal, "Yes, I know. I've been there too." You experience the situation from that person's position. To be compassionate is to understand the conflicts other people have created in themselves without getting caught up in their poignant drama; you realize your compassion will be most effective if you stay centered in loving acceptance. As Jesus saw Peter playing out his addiction and suffering because of it, he remained profoundly attuned to the humanity and the dignity of the man. His transparent look imbued with God’s forgiveness not only brought Peter to tears but enabled him to continue his journey onward and upward into a richer life with Christ.

-pg. 110 - 111

A remarkable thing happens when we embrace our unity with all of God's creation: everything we have given up is given back. Our worries concerning security, pleasure and power fall away in the recognition that all is well in the kingdom of God. The teaching of Jesus, "enough, then of worrying about tomorrow. Let tomorrow take care of itself" (Matthew 6:34), is no mere moral maxim but a personal reality at the lived level of daily experience.
-pg. 142