Every woman is in some way searching for or running from her beauty and every man is looking for or avoiding his strength.
My Role: Beloved of Jesus, sought after and pursued by the Great King
Being unable to defeat God through raw power, Satan's legions decide to wound God as deeply as possible by stealing the love of his beloved through seduction.
Satan's seduction of our heart always comes in the form of a story that offers us greater control through knowing good and evil rather than the unknowns of relationship.
"It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most human beings live only for the gratification of it." ~Aristotle
"...it (is) not in them, it only comes through them and what (comes) through them (is) longing....They are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited." ~C.S. Lewis
Standing still long enough to look down this road make us aware of an anxiety inside, an anxiety that threatens to crystallize into unhealed pain and forgotten disappointment.
This taste of transcendence, coming as it does from a non transcendent source, whether that be an affair, a drug, an obsession with sports, pornography, or living off of our giftedness, has the same effect on our souls as crack cocaine. It attaches itself to our desire with chains that render us captive.
"Nothing is less in power than the heart and far from commanding, we are forced to obey it." ~Jean Rousseau
Our heart will carry us either to God or to addiction.
God is saying, "I love you and yet you betray me at the drop of a hat. I feel so much pain. Can't you see we're made for each other? I want you to come back to me." (Jer 2:23-25)
"Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God." ~G.K. Chesterton
"We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." ~C.S. Lewis
If we listen to our heart again, perhaps for the first time in a while, it tells us how weary it is of the familiar and the indulgent.
Intrigued by these things and feeling the wind's free play on our face in a way we have almost forgotten, we seriously consider stepping out down the road we have so long feared and avoided. Just then our old lovers reach out for us with a vengeance. They promise us they will fill our heart to overflowing again if we will just give them one more chance. They even promise to become more religious if that will help.
Batter my heart, three personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new,
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but, oh to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend;
But is captive and proves week or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you and would be loved fain;
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you , imprison me, for I,
Except that you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
"Batter My Heart" ~ John Donne
Memory, Imagination, and a passion for Glory - these we must keep close at hand if we are to see the journey to the end.
The intimacy represented by married love is what God desires with each of us and so the imagery of courtship is what we must consider.
We all want to be someone's Hero or Beauty, to be in a relationship of Heroic Proportions. It is a core longing God himself placed within us and a deep part of our identity as men and women. It is in how we go about being heroes and beauties that is the issue.
Isaiah 57:9-10 ~ God calls Israel to repent by admitting her weariness and fainting. Instead, she looks for ways to use her personal assets to redeem herself. But what if we were to listen to our hearts, and hear it as a need to faint, a need to lay down our "doings" and simply make our needs known to Christ, and rest in him?
"Without solitude, we remain acolytes of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self." ~Henri Nouwen
A story is only as good as its ending. Even the best stories leave you empty if the last chapter is disappointing.
"But doesn't knowing the ending take away the drama?" I asked.
"It only takes away the fear and frees you to enjoy the drama," she said.
As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new,
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but, oh to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend;
But is captive and proves week or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you and would be loved fain;
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you , imprison me, for I,
Except that you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
"Batter My Heart" ~ John Donne
Every Great Story involves a quest.
Abraham left "his country, his people, and his father's household" to follow the most outlandish sort of promise from a God he'd only just met, and he never comes back. The Sacred Romance involves for every soul a journey of heroic proportions. And while it may require for some a change of geography, for every soul it means a journey of the heart.
Our story is written by God who is more than author, he is the romantic lead in our personal dramas. He created us for himself and now he is moving heaven and earth to restore us to his side.
Our desire is wild because it is made for a wild God.
"An adventure is, by nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose." ~Chesterton
So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life.
Faith is not the same thing as denial. Its not about pretending life is better than it is.
"Things will never change." <-- That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to "make all things new." Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers. You cannot out dream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation.
Abraham left "his country, his people, and his father's household" to follow the most outlandish sort of promise from a God he'd only just met, and he never comes back. The Sacred Romance involves for every soul a journey of heroic proportions. And while it may require for some a change of geography, for every soul it means a journey of the heart.
Our story is written by God who is more than author, he is the romantic lead in our personal dramas. He created us for himself and now he is moving heaven and earth to restore us to his side.
Our desire is wild because it is made for a wild God.
"An adventure is, by nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose." ~Chesterton
So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life.
Faith is not the same thing as denial. Its not about pretending life is better than it is.
"Things will never change." <-- That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to "make all things new." Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers. You cannot out dream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation.
Memory, Imagination, and a passion for Glory - these we must keep close at hand if we are to see the journey to the end.
The intimacy represented by married love is what God desires with each of us and so the imagery of courtship is what we must consider.
We all want to be someone's Hero or Beauty, to be in a relationship of Heroic Proportions. It is a core longing God himself placed within us and a deep part of our identity as men and women. It is in how we go about being heroes and beauties that is the issue.
Isaiah 57:9-10 ~ God calls Israel to repent by admitting her weariness and fainting. Instead, she looks for ways to use her personal assets to redeem herself. But what if we were to listen to our hearts, and hear it as a need to faint, a need to lay down our "doings" and simply make our needs known to Christ, and rest in him?
"Without solitude, we remain acolytes of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self." ~Henri Nouwen
A story is only as good as its ending. Even the best stories leave you empty if the last chapter is disappointing.
"But doesn't knowing the ending take away the drama?" I asked.
"It only takes away the fear and frees you to enjoy the drama," she said.
It doesn't matter if its a dull lie or a dull truth.
Dullness, not doubt, is the strongest enemy of faith,
just as indifference, not hate, is the strongest enemy of love.
Dullness, not doubt, is the strongest enemy of faith,
just as indifference, not hate, is the strongest enemy of love.
Desire keeps us moving forward; memory keeps us moving in the right direction.
I believe we need to hold the creeds in one hand and our favorite forms of art in the other. These are films, books, poems, songs, and paintings I return to again and again for some deep reason in my heart. Taking a closer look, I see that they all tell me about some part of the Sacred Romance. They help wake me to a deeper remembrance. As Don Hudson has said, "Are is, in the final analysis, a window on heaven."
In the story of the Last Supper, we are told that Jesus knew "he had come from God and was returning to God," and lived his life of selfless love to the end. He remembered both where he had come from and where he was going (John 13:3). And so much we.
I believe we need to hold the creeds in one hand and our favorite forms of art in the other. These are films, books, poems, songs, and paintings I return to again and again for some deep reason in my heart. Taking a closer look, I see that they all tell me about some part of the Sacred Romance. They help wake me to a deeper remembrance. As Don Hudson has said, "Are is, in the final analysis, a window on heaven."
In the story of the Last Supper, we are told that Jesus knew "he had come from God and was returning to God," and lived his life of selfless love to the end. He remembered both where he had come from and where he was going (John 13:3). And so much we.
I was doing a search for quotes from "The Sacred Romance" when I came across your post. Thank you for this compilation of great quotes from various people. Blessings...
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