"Sometimes it seems we just can't get what we want. Circumstances thwart our best-laid plans. We struggle to live a heartfelt life. Worst of all, says Eldredge, the modern church mistakenly teaches its people to kill desire (calling it sin) and replace it with duty or obligation (calling it sanctification). As a result, at best Christians tend to live safe, boring lives of resignation. At worst, their desire eventually breaks out in destructive ways such as substance abuse, affairs, and pornography addictions. In The Journey of Desire, Eldredge invites readers to rediscover God-given desire and to search again for the life they once dreamed of."
This may speak to you, and this may not. If it does, read on! I decided to include some of my favorite quotes from it in this post (I apologize, I forgot to write down the page numbers...guess you'll just have to read it to find them!):
"Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?"
-T.S. Eliot
"'I thought the best way for a person to live is to keep his desires to a minimum so that he will be prepared to serve God.'"
"We hide our true desire and call it maturity."
"Remember, we will make an idol of anything, especially a good thing. So distant now from Eden, we are desperate for life, and we come to believe that we must arrange for it as best we can, or no one will. God must thwart us to save us."
"No matter how hard we try, no matter how clever our plan, we cannot arrange for the life we desire."
"God must take the heaven we create, or it will become our hell."
"How do we except that it can't be done with an open heart? How do we sustain desire in the face of ongoing failure and loneliness? It all depends on what we do with hope."
"We are never living, but hoping to live; and whilst we are always preparing to be happy, it is certain, we never shall be so, if we aspire to no other happiness than what can be enjoyed in this life."
-Pascal
"Our imagination so powerfully magnifies time, by continual reflections upon it, and so diminishes eternity...for want of reflection, that we make a nothing of eternity and an eternity of nothing."
-Pascal
It's just a nice reminder that our desires are there for a reason, and they should be pursued. Because they will lead us to what really matters, and Who will really satisfy. Anyways, take what you will from this post! Picture to come later :)
