Desire

 I recently started Desire (formerly The Journey of Desire) by John Eldredge, and I must say - what a mightily powerful book. His words captivate me with the same passion as Lewis, a nearly forgotten way of writing.

I was especially intrigued by the way desire is talked about in the book. Listen to this:
"We are desire. It is the essence of the human soul, the secret of our existence."

Desire is who we are. I've never seen myself in that light. When I think of the word "desire" I think of a lust which must be snuffed out. But the real soul of the word is not something sinful. We have twisted it into what we want it to be, for do not all sinful desires come from something that is beautiful at its core? (lust comes from sex, coveting from an appreciation of beauty, etc. - I'm taking this from Lewis) But that's not what we've been created for. If our essence is desire, then it must be God's as well. A desire that is so strong we cannot even fathom it - the desire for us to love Him with even an inkling of the ocean of love He has given us.

Later in the book, he goes on to describe the kind of deep, desire-filled connection between a man and wife. For a long time, I've never understood "God is the groom and we, through Jesus, are His bride." While I have not yet experienced the love felt only in marriage, I have started to see more clearly why this "Bridegroom stuff" is sprinkled so frequently throughout the Old and New Testament. The earthly love experienced between a man and a woman is, for some, the highest degree of euphoria this life (in itself) has to offer us. If that is merely earthly, and God compares that kind of ecstatic relationship to His future marriage to us, how much more wonderful it will be when The Bride is finally consummated to The Bridegroom! Peter Kreeft says, "The spiritual intercourse with God is the ecstasy hinted at in all earthly intercourse, physical or spiritual. It is the ultimate reason why passion is so strong, so different from other passions, so heavy with suggestions of profound meanings that just elude our grasp." Wow.

Sometimes the language of the Bible blows me away. In some ways, it's more controversial than any Dan Brown book you pick up. :) Who else but our God would choose to reveal Himself in such a raw, powerful way? Who else but our God can be found even in the most intimate of human relationships? For me, evidence of God is everywhere. His name whispers from the simplest to the most complex of human interactions and emotions. Instead of "waiting" for God to speak, I want to have ears to hear and eyes to see.

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
-Mere Christianity