Desire: the Journey We Must Take to Find the Life God Offers

During the last couple of weeks, I've been able to read more than I have since our first child arrived nearly 6 years ago. Reading is a joy for me and something that I saw modelled in my mother, who usually had a book going all the time. During my single days here, I used to read much more. One year I read 50 books, nearly a book a week. But the tyranny of the urgent needs of 1, then 2, then 3 kids has made it much harder to find the time.

While in Colorado last week, I picked up John Eldredge's book Desire: The Journey We Must Take to Find the Life God Offers (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007). It's the 3rd book I've seen recently that deals with the theme of "desire." The other two are by Erwin McManus and Bill Johnson. All 3 books see "desire" as generally something positive that we need to consider and follow. In some camps of Christianity, desire is looked at at something very bad that we should avoid. But these books encourage embracing our desire as something that God has allowed and takes pleasure in.

This goes against a syncretism of Christianity with Buddhism, whose goal is to avoid all desire. It is easy to see how the modern Church has bought into this mindset. Our prayers and lives can be passionness because they are done out of duty.