Inner Journey Blog

One Pursuit

Jesus actually gave it as a commandment: Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

This was not a father giving the follow-the-rules speech or else. This was something different. He was saying that the soul of a man and a woman is primarily, primarily made for one thing: to love. To be enflamed with love. To be on fire with love. He made it a commandment because it's the one thing that a soul cannot live without: love, both giving and receiving. He made loving God a commandment because it's the one and only true thing that will satisfy the soul.

We can do everything possible to fill the soul, anesthetize the soul, busy the soul, distract the soul. But nothing will deeply satisfy until the soul is enflamed with love.

And not just any love. The first object of the soul's love, the primary affection of our heart that can cause our hearts to truly come alive, is God Himself. We are created to be intimate, passionate lovers of God. We are made for this. It's satisfying, it's enjoyable, it's being "in the zone" in a marvelous way.

So... why is my soul so readily seduced by lesser lovers? Why do I wallow around in my thoughts of needing this, wanting that, trying to get this done and accomplish that and ignore the One who is capable of bringing fiery life to heart?

Hey, it's a process. I don't have the answers. But I can, perhaps, allow the truth to sink in a little deeper... I was made for something incredibly wonderful... a relationship that can (and ultimately will forever) release my heart into what it's made for... romance/adventure/passion... of the most sacred kind.

(Inner Journey. Today's daily devotion. A devotional look at contemplation, lectio divina, and loving God. Interactive! Feel free to post comments!)

Inner Life as Romance

I love the theme of the inner life journey as an ever-deepening romance.

Some people have a difficult time with the term "romance" in conjunction with deity. This is understandable if we think of the word in terms of the erotic or sensual. But if we can take the word to a new level, sacred romance speaks of the powerfully passionate heart of God who invites humans into a level of intimacy and relationship that is staggering. When our hearts become intimate with a passionate God we will, at times, respond with a fervor that can only be described by the language of passionate love.

One of my favorite contemporary books is Sacred Romance, by John Edlredge. He explains why we long for intimacy with God and why this intimacy is laced with powerful love emotions:

"The Trinity is at the center of the universe; perfect relationship is the heart of all reality. Think of your best moments of love or friendship or creative partnership, the best times with family or friends around the dinner table, your richest conversations, the acts of simple kindness that sometimes seem like the only things that make life worth living. Like the shimmer of sunlight on a lake, these are reflections of the love that flows among the Trinity. We long for intimacy because we are made in the image of perfect intimacy."

We are made for the same powerful love emotions (romance) that flow within the Godhead. This is why those who pursue God deeply end up using love language to describe (in mere shadow form) what they are experiencing in God.

John of the Cross speaks of coming to a place in prayer where there is a "burning of love" to the point that one is "dying with love of Him." Teresa of Avila speaks of ecstatic experiences with the "Spouse that remain so deeply engraven in the memory that I think it is impossible for the soul to forget them until it is enjoying them for ever."

This may be more than we can grasp, but it can point us to a place in our own prayers where we begin to look for the love emotion that our hearts are made for as we relate with God.

I may be just warming up to this theme. Let's see where it goes. One thing I know... God pours His love out into my heart (Romans 5:5) and the more my heart and emotions become awakened and engaged as I relate to God, the more powerfully I wll experience Him.

(Inner Journey is an interactive daily devotional. Feel free to post comments!)