Journey of Desire ~ John Eldredge
In my time of greatest need, John Eldredge came to me through his books as the Good Samaritan, the one who bound up my wounds and carried me to the place of safety where I now dwell. I owe him so very much and count him one of my closest and dearest friends, though I have never met him.
Each one of us is created uniquely and different from one another. Some things that speak to me may well not speak to you and vice versa. That is as it should be. Some people will benefit greatly from reading John Eldredge, and others will receive nothing at all from his books. But those who do not get much from his take on things should not make the mistake of thinking that God does not speak deeply to another through those same words.
I would suggest that you purchase one of his books and read it. If God speaks to you, if your heart sings, then purchase the rest and read them.
The first book John Eldredge wrote, in conjunction with Brent Curtis, is The Sacred Romance. That is one place to start. His best book for men is Wild at Heart, another great place to start. Then there is The Way of the Wild Heart and Waking the Dead. I first read these words fromThe Journey of Desire. They leaped off the page as the hand of God inside of me and seized hold of my heart. I could not let go of the book until I had read every page, in tears, on my face on the floor before God, as His mercy washed over me in wave after wave.
from The Journey of Desire
There is a secret set within each of our hearts. It often goes unnoticed, we rarely can put words to it, and yet it guides us throughout the days of our lives. This secret remains hidden for the most part in our deepest selves. It is the desire for life as it was meant to be. Isn’t there a life you have been searching for all your days? You may not always be aware of your search, and there are times when you seem to have abandoned looking altogether. But again and again it returns to us, this yearning that cries out for the life we prize. It is elusive, to be sure. It seems to come and go at will. Seasons may pass until it surfaces again. And though it seems to taunt us, and may at times cause us great pain, we know that when it returns it is priceless. For if we could recover this desire, unearth it from beneath all other distractions, and embrace it as our deepest treasure, we would discover the secret of our existence.
Even as I type these words, the hand of God that seized my heart so long ago stirs deeply once again. I cannot remember a moment of my life where this secret set in my heart to know life as it really is was not the driving passion of my being. John Eldredge is the only one I had known who recognized what had always been the cry deep inside that never ever goes away.