The Journey of Desire

As part of a spiritual direction group book discussion, I have been reading "The Journey of Desire" by John Eldredge. The church is often suspicious of desire (just because it is so often misplaced) and teaches people to kill desire and call that sanctification. Eldredge proposes that "Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person. It is not a program for getting us in line or for reforming society...at its core, Christianity begins with an invitation to desire." He tells a tale of a sea lion........

Once upon a time there lived a sea lion who had lost the sea.

He lived in a country known as the barren lands. High on a plateau, far from any coast, it was a place so dry and dusty that it could only be called a desert. A kind of coarse grass grew in patches here and there, and a few trees were scattered across the horizon. But mostly, it was dust. And sometimes wind, which together make one very thirsty. Of course, it must seem strange to you that such a beautiful creature should wind up in a desert at all. He was, mind you, a sea lion. But things like this do happen.

How the sea lion came to the barren lands no one could remember. It all seemed so very long ago. So long, in fact, it appeared as though he had always been there. Not that he belonged in such an arid place. How could that be? He was, after all, a sea lion. But as you know, once you have lived so long in a certain spot, no matter how odd, you come to think of it as home.

There was a time, many years back, when the sea lion knew he was lost. In those days, he would stop every traveler he met to see if he might help him find his way back to the sea.

But no one seemed to know the way.

On he searched, but never finding. After years without success, the sea lion took refuge beneath a solitary tree beside a very small water hole. The tree provided refuge from the burning rays of the sun, which was very fierce in that place. And the water hole, though small and muddy, was wet, in its own way. Here he settled down and got on as best he could.

The ancient psalmists knew what it was to desire....O God you are my God and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you (Psalm 63 GNB). Do we?

My journey with the Lord did not start with a holy longing. In my youth, I was not aware of my deep need for the Lord. But as the years pass, I have begun to sense a certain inner restlessness. I have thought about this, I have prayed about it.....and after much reflection I know that this is the desire for God that nothing else in this world, however beautiful, can truly fill. I am determined not to allow anything in this world to dull this holy longing...for it is in the seeking that I will be found by the One whose love is stronger than death.

(More to come of the sea lion's story........)