The first time I ever remember crying over simple words strung together in a book was as I was reading a selection aloud to Dave from Max Lucado’s God Came Down back in the 80’s. I think I was reading the chapter written as Mary, the mother of Jesus, sort of pondering and praying in her heart about her newborn son, and, being a young mother myself, was impacted deeply.
Parts of “Mary’s Prayer” by Max Lucado
GOD. O infant-God. Heaven’s fairest child. Conceived by the union of divine grace with
our disgrace. Sleep well…
Rest well, tiny hands. For though you belong to a king, you will touch no satin, own no gold. You will grasp no pen, guide no brush. No, your tiny hands are reserved for works more precious:
to touch a leper’s open wound,
to wipe a widow’s weary tear,
to claw the ground of Gethsemane.
Your hands, so tiny, so white-clutched tonight in an infant’s fist. They aren’t destined to hold a scepter nor wave from a palace balcony. They are reserved instead for a Roman spike that will staple them to a Roman cross…
O eyes that will see hell’s darkest pit and witness her ugly prince . . . sleep, please sleep; sleep while you can.
Lie still, tiny mouth. Lie still, mouth from which eternity will speak.
Tiny tongue that will soon summon the dead, that will define grace, that will silence our foolishness.
Rosebud lips-upon which ride a starborn kiss of forgiveness to those who believe you, and of death to those who deny you-lie still…
That Max has a way with words (www.maxlucado.com) and you can access a special, downloadable selection of Christmas writings put together as “It Began in a Manger” right here. It is a 15-page gathering of writings he has done in various books with 6 short, but thought-provoking and inspirational “chapters” including “The Arrival, ” the above-mentioned “Mary’s Prayer” and “Gabriel’s Questions.”
I love to read this every year as I “prepare Him room”…again. Check it out! Enjoy “my” (Max’s) FREE giftto you on this first day of December!
He came as a baby to save me, even me! I’ll be contemplating that and celebrating my deliverance from the law of sin and death for the next 24+ days!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: God loves to see us celebrate and rejoice. Spread the word! JOY! To the whole world! Repeat as needed!
OK-just because he is one of the best-loved and most prolific writers in Christendom, and just because The Journey of Desire was my favorite book read in 2004 and just because I spent 6 months reading and writing and loving The Sacred Romance and experiencing an amazing “summer of love” because of it and my friends and I blogged about it all year this year – don’t think that authomatically makes me some kind of big John Eldredge fan. Because I am not an Eldredge groupie. Or maybe I wasn’t.
But I have just finished reading (2 weeks ago) the BEST book (it WILL be my “book of the year”) and it just happens to be by John Eldredge. And I seriously wish some one else, everyone else, would read it, too, and get it and get into conversation with me about it.
Walking with God – Talk to Him. Hear from Him. Really. That is the name of the book. I picked it up from the library on a whim, thinking I’d browse through quickly because there was no time to read it. But the day I got started, I was in all the way. I spent a week reading it (was the bronchitis a gift??), took 27 pages of handwritten notes and have now requested it for Christmas, because, I plan to read it again and write in it and underline and highlight and learn some more.
Here is how it is described on the jacket:
“This is a series of stories of what it looks like to walk with God, over the course of about a year.”
“So begins a remarkable narrative of one man’s journey learning to hear the voice of God. In Walking wtih God by John Eldredge, the details are intimate and personal. The invitation is for us all. What if we could hear from God . . . often? What difference would it make?
All day long we are making choices. It adds up to an enormous amount of decisions in a lifetime. How do we know what to do? We have two options. We can trudge through on our own, doing our best to figure it all out.
Or, we can walk with God. As in, learn to hear his voice. Really. We can live life with God. He offers to speak to us and guide us. Every day. It is an incredible offer. To accept that offer is to enter into an adventure filled with joy and risk, transformation and breakthrough. And more clarity than we ever thought possible.”
John Eldredge basically shares his personal journaling with us, the things he faces and considers and learns throughout the course of a year. Thus, no chapters or formulaic divisions. What he learns about intimacy with God or joy and how essential it is, the spiritual warfare in which he engages, the agreements he breaks with the enemy and the growth in prayer and understanding of the power of the completed work of Jesus on the cross and the deliverance available through the blood of Jesus – these are not segregated, sectioned off revelations, but the interweaving of them throughout the course of the year. Here a little, there a little, as God taught Him, interacted with him, talked to him. Really.
This is the kind of book every parent should leave behind for their children: the record of the faithfulness of the hand of God in our lives in the day in and the day out. Here is what I learned, no-am still learning. Here is what God did on this day. Here is the battle I repeatedly face. Here is how I am overcoming. John Eldredge opened the pages of his journal and shared these things in this book. And even told how he is instilling them in his sons, even now.
The book: It’s conversational. It’s powerful. I felt like I was sitting there talking to the author directly. For me, it was timely and insightful on being whole and holy, and the importance of joy. It reminded me to recognize the enemy’s work against me and how I have made subtle agreements with the enemy that have given him a foothold in my life, but also gave me the courage, the prayers and the understanding to break those things, resist the devil and watch him flee! It exposed busyness again, a recurring struggle for me, and awakened me to ways the enemy has kept me in bondage, but how I do not have to stay there. Period.
Really good read. Really can’t wait to tear into my own copy again. Really loving what I learned about prayer and the new power in my personal prayer life. See http://www.walkingwithgod.net/pdf/DailyPrayer.pdf to get you started.
Hearing from Him so much more…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Increase the conversation with the God of the universe who does actually involve Himself in what concerns me.
For 28 Christmases now, he has worked hard, planned, created, wrapped, shopped, baked, played, decorated and done whatever else is necessary to create a magical, love-filled, memory-made Christmas for our family. Christmas mornings at our house are legendary feasts of extravagant indulgence and convivial love banquets of gifts and good smells and laughter and mountains of giftwrap and the music of Christmas and the love of the most incredible husband-father-grandfather. It isn’t about the money spent, for often there has been precious-little of that, but it’s the thoughtful generosity of spirit, gifts that remind the recipient: you are loved, cherished and appreciated-this is my token of that. But – wrap all of that in a huge Christmas bow and you have the gift of the season that my husband puts much great effort in to.
You are the original Clark Griswold, honey. You are George Bailey and Father O’Malley ringing the bells of Christmas. You are my handsome Jefferson Jones, my lover by tree-light. You are Kris Kringle and Santa Claus. You are the man described in “Holiday Inn” in the exchange between Jim Hardy and Miss Linda Mason (Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds).
Linda: You’re a lot like my father – just a man with a family. Never amounted to much, never really cared. But as long as he was alive, we had food to eat and clothes to keep us warm.
Jim: Were you happy?
Linda: Very.
Jim: Well, then your father was a successful man. I hope I can do as well.
Yes, baby, you are Mr. Christmas. I love that you are. I love that you are ever-committed to making merry for all. I am smiling at how excited you are to be organizing the decorations – getting ready to haul them out in mere days. You know where everything is and you’re planning, with a twinkle in your eye, to give us yet another wonderful Christmas.
As the Carpenters once sang: Merry Christmas, Darling…Jeanie
From Dickens’ A Christmas Carol~
“…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us, all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, ‘God bless us, Every One!'”
NOTE TO SELF: Love the Christmas keeper.
characters above from some of our favorite Christmas movies, including: Christmas Vacation, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Bells of Saint Mary’s, Christmas in Connecticut, Miracle on 34th Street, Holiday Inn
pictured: sweet daughter, Stormie did the graphic for me, from a photo of Dave and a Bing Crosby album.
Tina Fey is so right on! She is seriously amazing in this sketch. This is definitely a character I’ll want to keep watching! It is hilarious – and Hillary-arious, too. Meaw-meaw-meaw…
Sarah Palin has made this campaign fun. She has. Hillary is so obviously more qualified, more experienced, etc. But I believe most men thought she wanted to kick ’em where it counts. Whereas Sarah – she seems more, shall we say, approachable?…And sorta self-deprecating.
These are the observations both deep and lighthearted from The Sacred Romance – Drawing Closer to the Heart of God (by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge) among a few friends. We are drawing to a close here as we begin to think towards heaven – a very important part of the story God is writing for us. We hope you’ll let us know what you are thinking, too…
Posts by the other book-bloggers to follow.
Chapter Twelve: Coming Home
Jeanie on Chapter 12: Besides the Epilogue, this is it-the final chapter in this now-classic book by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis. I was sort of resisting this chapter for two reasons. One, the book has been so impactful that I don’t want it to end, and two, I knew we were going to focus on heaven.
Page 179: “If…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…”
You may be wondering, What? A Christian who doesn’t want to talk about heaven? Well, kind of. It isn’t that I don’t want to or that I don’t hope to go there someday. But I grew up in Christianity that seemed very focused on escape – let’s get out of here and get to heaven as quickly as we can, seemed the metality. People would gut-sing songs with lyrics like “This old life is filled trouble…trials and sorrow fill the ‘morrow, but someday soon, I’ll take my flight…some morning I will leave it all behind.” They would belt out these words as if they were hoping God would just transport them right to heaven if they sang loud enough. Yes, I grew up among Chrsitians who lived their lives in a beam-me-up-God, PLEASE! metality.
So, I have swung the direction of figuring out how to live in the here and now as a Christian. I think there is a good scriptural basis for this, “On earth, as it is in heaven.” The Word of God as a whole is filled with wisdom to get us through this life.
But I also know I have discounted, at times, the beauty of what awaits. I have wondered about heaven. Fully aware that it is not going to be a bunch of little cherubs on clouds with harps popping grapes into their mouths, I still have wondered: what will it be? And it has been hard to fathom, for I am very practical and boxed in and linear at times. I admit I have read John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ (The Book of the Revelation) and quickly glossed over his attempts to describe the indescribable. In so doing, I know I have missed what may be.
Quoting C.S. Lewis on page 180, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Though it is full of theological inconsistencies and truly ‘just a story,’ the movie “What Dreams May Come” was one person’s attempt to comprehend what might be. The tag “After life there is more. The end is just the beginning” certainly capsulizes what most of us believe. In the movie, the man dies and finds out there is a heaven that was more than he could have imagined. Surprisingly, for a movie, it was beautiful and fantastical and colorful. How do you communicate that?
Eugene Peterson, the interpreter of The Message, piqued my interest in introducing Revelation:
“The Bible ends with a flourish: vision and song, doom and deliverance, terror and triumph. the rush of color and sound, image and energy leaves us reeling…we find ourselves in the multidimensional act of Christian worship…John’s Revelation is not easy reading, Besides being a pastor, John is a poet, fond of metaphor and symbol, image and allusion, passionate in his desire to bring us into the presence of Jesus believing and adoring…the demands he makes on our intelligence and imagination are well-rewarded…for our worship of God {when we receive the Revelation] will almost certainly deepen in in urgency and joy.”
So, in The Sacred Romance, we arrive at the topic of heaven and though I’ve sometimes neglected it, I am open. Let’s talk heaven.
Quoting Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft from Everything You Wanted to Know about Heaven (pages 180-181): “Our pictures of heaven simply do not move us; they are not moving pictures…Our pictures of Heaven are dull, platitudinous and syrupy; therefore, so is our faith, our hope, and our love of Heaven…Dullness, not doubt, is the strongest enemy of of faith…”
The author, in reflecting on 1 Cor. 2.9 (“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him”) reminds us “we cannot outdream God.”
He goes on to quote theologians and philosophers trying to make sense of what we cannot fully understand, like John the revelator, who tried to explain in words what we don’t yet have words for, “…it was like jasper…the streets were like…glass like crystal…” etc.
Reading these things, I could see how lifeless my imagination of a future with God, and seeing Him and being like Him will be. I have read of the worship of heaven and, with my great love of worship have just envisioned myself some where in the crowd, far away from Him, unnoticed. I have secretly wondered how that could be heaven.
But as I pondered the possibilities, after reading this chapter, it seemed God gave me a glimpse: me, as a 10-year old girl on a tire swing, just having moved “far away” from family and friends and church and all I had ever known, but in those lonely times, with lush, green Iowa grass beneath my feet and a corn field and streams round about, I would sing the songs of heaven – sing to Father. The melodies came easily and His Presence soothed my fears and lonliness and it was just Him and me. God reminded me that He has already been giving me glimpses to keep me on the path. I am pretty sure in heaven, I will have my own tire swing on grassy meadows and there’ll be no crowds between us….
What can you tell me about heaven? I want to know more…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Today I am closer than yesterday to where “real life begins.”
She has “awarded” me this symbol and names me a blog she hearts. And truly it would be a wonderful prize, except that I have to WORK for it. I have to award it to 7 other people and have them pay it forward. And so on. And so on. And so on….
The waters feel choppy, here, Carol Ann. How am I, a person who loves soooooo many blogs, to pick only 7? Some are so great, but they only actually post 3.2 times a year, so I sort of have them on “probation.” I wish all my kids blogged-by default it would be easier. But I must select. Well, here goes, in no particular order. The I LOVE YOUR BLOG AWARDS go to:
1.
Carol Ann-you win again. The other lady that awarded you talked about your joy and fun shining through and it is true. You were the blogger I most looked up to when I started blogging because you did it so well and so honestly. You won again! You have to do it all over!
2.
Stephanie’s Place – you win because you write so well about such tough stuff. I am honored to have the secret password. And one day (soon, I am thinking), I will be standing across the bookstore watching you sign copies of one of the many books you have in you, and I will say, “I knew her when it was just a blog…”
3.
Robin, my sister-in-law. Sometimes she and I write these amazing blog posts back and forth in the form of emails, and I think: what are we, crazy? The world should be reading this amazing material. Robin is pretty new at it and hasn’t found her posting groove (she thinks it should be really important first-ha-then I’d never post!), but when she writes, it is good!
4.
My husband’s. He has 3 websites and 4 blogs, but I’ll just mention one. We write for each other really. If you read us both, you are in on the corny conversations that are our life. We like each other a lot. :)
5.
Tara’s. She doesn’t write enough, but I love when my first-born does! She is a passionate young woman, full of zeal and optimism, truly in love and inspirational in her walk with God. I always tell her if she weren’t my daughter, I’d be trying to find ways to be friends with her.
6.
Jovan’s, my daughter-in-love.She is better to me than 7 sons(Ruth 4.15). I have known this girl for at least 1/3 of her life and she is only 21! She married my son almost 2 years ago and her exhuberance for her husband and baby bless my heart. She writes of love in every post and gives me lots of pictures to look at!
7+.
Pearl and Bryan. These are two, but they are kind of connected by marriage. Bryan is clever, witty and wry and uses my blog to write tormenting things on his, sometimes. He is the brother I already have too many of. :) Pearl is artistic and thoughtful, deep and sincere. She writes about family and beauty and things of the heart. They are good friends who’ve seen me at my worst, and yet, are good friends.
OK winners, there are AWARD RULES, here is what you have to do:
Tell the winner to put the award logo on their blog. It is their prize!
Link to the person from whom you received your award.
You bestow the award on 7 other blogs and link to them!
E-mail or leave a message on the bloggers you have awarded letting them know.
Heather and I commented on Chapter Ten here. Amy Jo shared her thoughts on both Chapters 10 and 11 here. And now our good friend, Candi shares some insights she has received from Chapters 10 and 11: “On the Road,” and “Desert Communion – Learning to Live on Heaven’s Shores” and I add my 2-cents’ worth on Chapter 11.
pictured: Heather and her family and Amy Jo and her husband
We are nearing the end of the book, The Sacred Romance~Drawing Closer to the Heart of God by John Elderidge and Brent Curtis. We have all been reading the book and jotting down our reactions and thoughts to share with you. I am glad to know some of you have read the book along with us and even though you didn’t necessarily wish to “tell all” via the blog, it has been good to hear how God has reaffirmed His love to you through the reading. If you want to re-cap where we started and see how far we have come during our “summer romance”, just click on the “Sacred Romance” category link on the left, or here to get you started.
Candi picks up at Chapter 10: I’ve been away from The Sacred Romance for awhile. Not THE Sacred Romance, but the book. In fact, although I’ve been out of the book I have completely had THE Sacred Romance on my mind the whole time. As I reread Chapter 10 (I’ve read it about 4 times now) I’m realizing that I AM starting to view things differently, from a different perspective. It is all about “wondering what God is up to in all of this.” Pg 145.
I’m ready for the Journey. From Pg. 149, “So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life. We turn away from the familiar abiding places of the heart, the false selves we have lived out, the strengths we have used to make a place for ourselves and all our false loves, and we venture forth in our hearts to trace the steps of the One who said, ‘Follow me.’ In a way, it means that we stop pretending: that life is better than it is, that we are happier than we are, that the false selves we present to the world are really us.”As I prepare for the journey (finally!) I’m looking back at the many times I’ve desired to go on it but for various reasons have not completely surrendered to it. I’m starting to analyze past situations, relationships, thoughts, “Nits”, and my roles in them for what many of them really were, but I’m also asking what God’s real purpose is in all of this. It’s really been a path to discovery more than a hard road. And it’s all leading me to Jesus!
About 3 years ago I started realizing that my focus for salvation was for what I could get (the streets of gold!) rather than really desiring and fostering a relationship with God. A dear spiritual teacher (MaryJean!) gave me this and I pass it along because it really was the beginning to my Sacred Romance with Jesus:
It’s not healing I need – It’s the healer.
It’s not help I need – It’s the helper.
It’s not comfort I need – It’s the comforter.
It’s not teaching I need – It’s the teacher.
It’s not provision I need – It’s the provider.
It’s not protection I need – It’s the defender.
It’s not strength I need – It’s the strong one.
I don’t need to get a life; I need life, HIMSELF.
On Chapter 11: Now I find myself at a time of desert communion. I understand this as the path that I’ve been on from reading this. Had I written on this a month ago I wouldn’t have had much application. Just this past month my husband and I have completely stepped out of ministry at our church. A couple years ago our church faced a “perfect storm” scenario that if it wasn’t for God’s will and power I know it may not have survived. At times like this God calls you to help man the ship although you may not be the best sailor. You do the best you can through obedience knowing that He will provide the sails. Well, through God’s glory there has been much healing and the church is sailing on much more secure waters.
My husband and I were still a part of the crew. However, we were still feeling caught up in the “doing” of it all. I was trying to seek God in the aftermath, but too busy to really hear Him. Isn’t it funny we were “doing” church things? And so, for our various reasons we have stopped everything. In this break, I’m asking myself, “Is my identity synonymous with activity?” Pg. 163. “Am I experiencing my spiritual life not as a love affair, but as burdensome, heavy, exhausting and alien?” Pg. 165.
Jesus’ answer is this:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
“Only Christ can carry us to rest. The kinds of ‘doing’s’ we have learned are not weighty enough to allow us to walk in the spiritual fields of the kingdom of God.” Pg. 169.
My next destination on my journey, I now know, is to “give up everything else but Him. We experience the freedom of knowing that he simply loves us where we are. We begin to just be, having our identity anchored in him. We begin to experience our spiritual life as the ‘easy yoke and light burden’ Jesus tells us is his experience.” Pg. 175.
Lord, I pray that I am always “hearing” your soft whisper and in turn whispering back to you. Forgive me for not always making our desert communion the focus of my spiritual walk, and instill in me a repentant attitude. Bring healing, rest, focus, and peace at this time, so I can serve once again with my whole heart to glorify your Name.
My turn on Chapter 11 (Jeanie):This chapteris about learning to rest in God and His unbridled love for us as we follow Christ’s own tradition (as well as early church “Desert Fathers”) to pull away from the restlessness and activity of life into the “spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, meditation (heart prayer), fasting and simplicity” (Mark Buchanan includes these in his “holy habits” in the book, Your God is too Safe).
The author talks about that place when you really stop for just a minute, when you have pulled your heart away from your adrenalin-addicted, activity captivity and your heart tells you how truly tired and burdened and worn down you are. He said, “…it is of no use to ask God to give us energy to make our way back up the cliff over which we have fallen.” I had to laugh at that because I have tried. Lord knows I have prayed and prayed (God, heal me, give me energy to do kingdom work, yada yada yada) and made all my friends pray it, too!
But I love the prayer in the book, “Jesus, help me. All my lovers have failed me. Forgive me. I cannot quench my thirst. Give me the water of life.” It is prayer God can answer in the deep places of our hearts. And He’ll tell us, “Go, and sin no more.”
I’ve most recently been overwhelmed in the tiniest beginning of understanding about the Father-Heart of God towards me. And in that, God is practically leading me through verdant woodlands of his love, green lush life and babbling brooks of refreshment, a recognition that all He has is mine because, and simply because, I am His child. He is a few steps ahead and spreading the branches so I can navigate this place of purity and life. I keep getting glimpses, as He is calling me toward Himself, right over here, Jeanie, come on, and I can see my true homeland just beyond in fleeting moments. Just a few more steps and I may actually get this thing…
But I backslide. I slide back into thinking I need to impress Him with my righteousness or my work for Him or by “paying my own way.” Wait – the branches just moved. He keeps wooing me. My Father loves me. It is OK for me to go into the desert with Him. It is OK not to have an answer when some one wonders what all I have been “doing” for Him. He calls us to the Secret Place.
I so enjoyed the author’s word pictures describing the intimate and wild-love of the Song of Solomon in direct contrast to the imaginary couple at a sidewalk cafe, where as the bride-to-be is talking about her excitement for the upcoming wedding and how she can’t wait to get to know her lover better and be with him more and experience true intimacy, he, a cad, tells her, “I’ll send you a book that describes more about my life. I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it,” and “…I’d like to send you to a weekend seminar [about intimacy with me] and that should be very helpful.” The writers pointed out that that is the way we very often carry on our love affair with God. When in reality, the conversation would be more like that in The Song of Songs, which everybody knows is some pretty hot talk! But on page 161 when the writer is explaining that God isn’t giving us this glimpse through the bedroom window at the love affair between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba just to be voyeuristic (but rather to realize that “this is the kind of passion He feels for us and desires from us in return”),I had to laugh!
It turns out I am, indeed, the Queen of Sheba! Spiritually speaking, of course, and you are, too!
Sincerely Yours, The Queen of Sheba, aka…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: So grateful for the friends who have so openly shared the glimpses of God’s work in their lives through their responses to this book. That ain’t always easy!
