My travels have taken a bit of a hiatus lately, I know.
I am preoccupied - with a vacation that I am on, with things that I have encountered, with new, unexpected feelings that have made themselves known in far too dramatic fashion.
I walk around the streets of this big city which I am visiting lost in thought; lost in other people's faces; lost in memories of experiences not from long ago, but from just the other day.
One of my favorite books of all time is John Eldredge's "The Journey of Desire". This book has been read by me more times than I care to count, and it has also been thrown against walls, floors, doors, whatever, by me.
Anyone who's curious about new ways to look at God - read it.
One of my most loved passages in ANY book is this:
"Simone Weil was right; there are only two things that pierce the human heart: beauty and affliction. Moments we wish would last forever and moments we wish had never begun."
To be honest - I've encountered many, many of my favorite passages in Eldredge's writings. So this is just one of several.
But My, how this is true. I have experienced more of each of those types than I deserve. I am going thru one right now, as I write this.
Beauty and Affliction.
I know not what to do with it.
5 comments:
Drinking heavily helps. Of course, it doesn't work for everyone.
I think you do know what to do, it just isn't easy. Throw the book a couple more times- that might help ;)
Then get alone in solitude and be still for a while. You'll see.
morbid - i think for me, drinking gets me into more trouble than it gets me out of
but thanks for the advice
dennis - perhaps you're right, my friend, perhaps
i DID get alone for a while - i didn't throw the book, although maybe i should have - and i think i figured out what to do
it's never easy, is it?
Hey J, I thought I'd read your blog again. Man, I do love John Eldredge (I just finished explaining that on Dennis' site). I love those books too much to ever throw them, though. But I disagreed with him for a long time about the heart. Then I decided he was right--with certain caveats. I'm still more comfortable trusting a voice I know to be God's--when I know--than trusting my own desires. I know the desires in my heart and some of them are definitely not from God.
Anyway, I have no idea what y'all are talking about on this page, so I'll shut up now....
steven - thanks for stopping back by man
i, too, love Eldredge and what he has to say about it all
and i did have some problems accepting it, hence the throwing of "Journey of Desire"
i hear ya - i'm more comfortable trusting God as well, but i think a lot of the time he speaks THROUGH our own hearts - he places his voice in there so that we will hear it from our core
and i don't care if you have no idea what we're talking about - chime in, bro, all you want
willow - well said
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