A Borrowed Message

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by Seeking Peace in Eldredge, heart, heart for God

var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {} I’m posting an email I received from John Eldredge that is taken from his book, The Sacred Romance, because it speaks to me of where I’ve been, where I find myself now and where I need to be on-guard for in the future. It’s so easy to lose heart for what is important by getting wrapped up in the minor events of today. It’s easy to exert a great deal of time and energy into house-hunting, car-shopping, running here and there, school and lose focus of where I really want to be going and where and I really want (and need) my energy to be focused so that I am feel truly fulfilled in this life. Lord, pull me close and help me open my eyes to the things can fill my heart…and my mind…and my soul.

A Loss of Heart

It was to the most religious people of his time that Jesus spoke his strongest warnings about a loss of heart.

It is tragic for any person to lose touch with the life of their heart but especially so for those of us who once heard the call in our heart and recognized it as the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. We may remember him inviting us to a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure that we thought was lost. For others of us, when he called, it felt for the first time in our lives as if our heart had finally found a home. We responded in faith, in hope, and in love and began the journey we call the Christian life. Each day seemed a new adventure as we rediscovered the world with God by our side.

But for many of us, the waves of first love ebbed away in the whirlwind of Christian service and activity, and we began to lose the Romance. Our faith began to feel more like a series of problems that needed to be solved or principles that had to be mastered before we could finally enter into the abundant life promised us by Christ. We moved our spiritual life into the outer world of activity, and internally we drifted. We sensed that something was wrong, and we perhaps tried to fix it-by tinkering with our outer life. We tried the latest spiritual fad, or a new church, or simply redoubled our commitment to make faith work. Still, we found ourselves weary, jaded, or simply bored. Others of us immersed ourselves in busyness without really asking where all the activity was headed. At one point in my own spiritual pilgrimage, I stopped to ask myself this question: “What is it that I am supposed to be doing to live the spiritual life in any way that is both truthful and passionately alive?”

Grace and peace to you.

Happy, Happy, Happy

08 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Eldredge, fulfilling, happy, seek God

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I’m borrowing from John Eldredge again. I get emails from him and he often speaks to things that are on my mind and on my heart. This is one of those emails.

I have people tell me from time to time, “you deserve to be happy” and it’s something that just doesn’t sit well with me. For me, happiness is a fleeting thing. I’m happy one moment, not so happy the next. I’m happy and a problem pops, I’m happy and someone does something to me that hurts, one minute I’m happy and then I’m not so happy for a multitude of reasons. Happiness comes quickly and it goes quickly. Sometimes life is hard and it beats me down and if happiness is what I really seek, I’ll be miserable.

As Good as It Gets?

If for all practical purposes we believe that this life is our best shot at happiness, if this is as good as it gets, we will live as desperate, demanding, and eventually despairing men and women. We will place on this world a burden it was never intended to bear. We will try to find a way to sneak back into the Garden and when that fails, as it always does, our heart fails as well. If truth be told, most of us live as though this life is our only hope.

In his wonderful book The Eclipse of Heaven, A. J. Conyers put it quite simply: “We live in a world no longer under heaven.” All the crises of the human soul flow from there. All our addictions and depressions, the rage that simmers just beneath the surface of our Christian facade, and the deadness that characterizes so much of our lives has a common root: We think this is as good as it gets. Take away the hope of arrival and our journey becomes the Battan death march. The best human life is unspeakably sad. Even if we manage to escape some of the bigger tragedies (and few of us do), life rarely matches our expectations. When we do get a taste of what we really long for, it never lasts. Every vacation eventually comes to an end. Friends move away. Our careers don’t quite pan out. Sadly, we feel guilty about our disappointment, as though we ought to be more grateful.

Of course we’re disappointed-we’re made for so much more. “He has also set eternity in the hearts” (Eccl. 3:11). Our longing for heaven whispers to us in our disappointments and screams through our agony. “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy,” C. S. Lewis wrote, “the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

(The Sacred Romance , 179-80)

I know the people who tell me I deserve to be happy mean well and I don’t set out to give them my outlook on things (because they’d likely think I’m loonier than they already do) and I appreciate their concern for me. That said, I’ve also got some other friends who share their hopes for me in this way: Seek God. Seek his favor. Seek the peace that comes only from Him. Seek joy from knowing Jesus’ love. Seek comfort from being a child of God. Seek God. Nothing more, nothing less. I know today, more than ever, that seeking God and his ways for my life will lead me to something greater, more fulfilling, than happiness ever could.

Grace and peace to you.

The Lies We Are Told

03 Friday Jun 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Eldredge, God's love, lies, love, satan's lie

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I’m borrowing from John Eldredge again today. He talks about a lie I have fallen for and still fall for from time to time but as I learn more and more about God’s love for me, the lie is rapidly losing it’s power over me.

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Subtle Attack?Looking for Agreements

The devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all-time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver-that you do not really love Jesus Christ and that you are only pretending, you are only deceiving yourself. (William Gurnall)

Satan is called in Scripture the Father of Lies (John 8:44). His very first attack against the human race was to lie to Eve and Adam about God, and where life is to be found, and what the consequences of certain actions would and would not be. He is a master at this. He suggests to us-as he suggested to Adam and Eve-some sort of idea or inclination or impression, and what he is seeking is a sort of “agreement” on our part. He’s hoping we’ll buy into whatever he’s saying, offering, insinuating. Our first parents bought into it, and look what disaster came of it. The Evil One is still lying to us, seeking our agreement every single day.

Your heart is good. Your heart matters to God. Those are the two hardest things to hang on to. I’m serious-try it. Try to hold this up for even a day. My heart is good. My heart matters to God. You will be amazed at how much accusation you live under. You have an argument with your daughter on the way to school; as you drive off, you have a nagging sense of, Well, you really blew that one. If your heart agrees-Yeah, I really did-without taking the issue to Jesus, then the Enemy will try to go for more. You’re always blowing it with her. Another agreement is made. It’s true. I’m such a lousy parent. Keep this up and your whole day is tanked in about five minutes. The Enemy will take any small victory he can get. It moves from You did a bad thing to You are bad. After a while it just becomes a cloud we live under, accept as normal.

(Waking the Dead , 152-53)

Lord, I thank you that your love has more power than anything else I will ever know.

Grace and peace to you.

Wounds

27 Friday May 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in Eldredge, scars, wounds

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Borrowing from John Eldredge today…

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Friday, May 27, 2011

Honor Wounds

You will be wounded. Just because this battle is spiritual doesn’t mean it’s not real; it is, and the wounds a man can take are in some ways more ugly than those that come in a firefight. To lose a leg is nothing compared to losing heart; to be crippled by shrapnel need not destroy your soul, but to be crippled by shame and guilt may. You will be wounded by the Enemy. He knows the wounds of your past, and he will try to wound you again in the same place. But these wounds are different; these are honor-wounds.

Blaine was showing me his scars the other night at the dinner table. “This one is where Samuel threw a rock and hit me in the forehead. And this one is from the Tetons when I fell into that sharp log. I can’t remember what this one was from; oh, here’s a good one-this one is from when I fell into the pond while chasing Luke. This one is a really old one when I burned my leg on the stove camping.” He’s proud of his scars; they are badges of honor to a boy . . . and to a man. We have no equivalent now for a Purple Heart of spiritual warfare, but we will. One of the noblest moments that await us will come at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Our Lord will rise and begin to call those forward who were wounded in battle for his name’s sake and they will be honored, their courage rewarded. I think of Henry V’s line to his men,

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian . . .
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say, “These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.”
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day; then shall our names . . .
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

(Wild at Heart ,176-77)

Grace and peace to you.