You have an idea of what the new country looks like. Still you are very much at home, although not truly at peace, in the old country. . . Now you have come to realize that you must leave it and enter the new country , where your Beloved dwells. You know that what helped and guided you in the old country no longer works, but what else do you have to go by? You are being asked to trust that you will find what you need in the new country. That requires the death of what has become so precious to you: influence, success, yes, even affection and praise.
Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love, p 21