Many years ago, during a time of midlife crisis, God graciously broke through into my soul. Early one morning after a night of fitful sleep, I began to see a vision of my heart at two levels. The crevices of the deeper region were mostly packed in with decades of debris. On top of this hard crust, I had piled on the outer workings of my daily life: wife, home school mother of 10, homemaker, church member, writer, and other duties. I realized that even in my spiritual life of Scripture study and prayer (which have been so very valuable), I often live in the “oughts” and not from true desire or spiritual passion. As I wrote these newer insights into my journal, the crust to the deeper places started to crack open. Visiting a friend later that day, I tried to put into words what I felt God was saying to me. Her mouth dropped open, and she ran to get a book she had just started reading. I flipped through the pages, and my mouth dropped open. Everything I had just tried to say, everything I had just written in my own journal, I found on the pages of the book she handed to me, The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge. The quote above is from a chapter by Brent Curtis.
When I included this quote in an article I wrote back in July 2006, a friend at the church we were attending then wasn't too pleased that I would refer positively to a book by co-author John Eldredge. She even e-mailed the pastors to ask them to keep an eye on me. Well, I guess that's one way of getting attention! ;-) I found it ironic a few years later to find the exact same quote in a book called One Thing: Developing a Passion for the Beauty of God by Sam Storms, an author whose books were promoted in the pulpit and sold in the church bookstore. I'm not saying I agree with everything that Eldredge has ever written, but this quote from that book reached deep inside of me at such a critical moment in my life. It was like a life line thrown to a drowning woman, and certainly a milestone in a complete paradigm shift that was taking place in my life then. This and many other things eventually led to us leaving that church last year. And the quote, which was from a chapter by Brent Curtis, still speaks to me. A friend shared a different quote from The Sacred Romance on Facebook this morning, and it brought my own favorite quote from it back to mind. I'm so glad that I took the opportunity to go back and read it, think about it, and share it in a few places. I know I will be pondering on it more in the days to come, and I hope you will, too.
Life is not a dry system, folks. It's not even all about rooting out the sin in our lives so that we can be acceptable to God and others. It's not about rules of hierarchy and control and spiritual authority. It's not about religion. It's not about sharing pat spiritual band-aid answers with friends who are hurting.
It's about experiencing the
beauty...
grace...
healing...
liberty...
hope...
authenticity...
acceptance...
and LOVE of our heavenly Father
that he has offered through Jesus.
No one can do that for you. No one can write your life script for you. No one can ever know you and love you like God does. If like me, it feels like that kind of life has been quenched out of you again, maybe it is time to sit and soak in it once more?
If these words resonate with you, please read my poems It Became to Me a Dark Thing and This Is My Song and I Sing and visit my blog www.comewearymoms.blogspot.com where I often address the themes of beauty and the deeper life.
Blessings,
Virginia Knowles
www.VirginiaKnowles.blogspot.com
Virginia: The only book I completely agree with, perhaps, is the Bible. Others are written by people. Your comment that The Sacred Romance “reached deep inside of me at such a critical moment in my life” was a good thing. God uses people in our lives; if John Eldredge is one of them, thank God. We should make sure we are listening
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