Are we missing the Richness of life with HIM?

I was able to go hear John Eldredge speak last weekend. It was a lot of fun. I haven't ever finished his "Wild at Heart" book, but what I know about him is all good stuff. So I thought I'd go and hear what he had to say. The topic of the night was "heart of God." I was able to meet him before hand and he is just a spunky and fun guy that I knew we were in for a treat for the session. The first time he said he was going to pray the entire lecture hall stood up at the same moment (it is a common thing in churches here to do that). We were sitting in old wooden bleacher seats so they all made a sound when standing. I was shocked and so was Eldredge. He laughed and said it sounded like thunder but it was in many ways breath taking.

He began by explaining what he has seen as the heart of God that we are missing. We are missing that God is playful and intimate. He also said he's cunning. :) The cunning I was a little hesitant to go with but he explained it that God uses his cunning to draw closer to us. :) When we loose God's personality he becomes vague and we have a hard time imitating Him. He also challenged us by the way we read scripture. He used three stories from the Bible to show God's playfulness with us. There were simpler stories in the Bible he could have used but I was impressed that he took on some harder topics and showed how God's personality shines in them. His challenge was to think about how we fill in things when reading the Bible and by how we fill those things in we are filling in how we see God's personality. He then went on to talk about how Jesus was radical and they killed Him because they couldn't handle his view of God, God doesn't like it when we draw lines...we walks right over them. It was all about having a deeply intimate relationship with God. As we see God's love and more of Him we fall more and more in love with Him. After this the talk got heavy for me. :)

He mentioned that most people settle for a bottom level God. We put limitations on Jesus and he wants to close the gap. We will miss the richness of a life with HIm if we don't learn the heart to heart with Him. He also said that while we may be Christians do we settle or are we playful with God? This was a beautiful picture... he said "All the things that has captured your heart are used by God to woo you to him. He knows what makes you come alive. Your heart is a reflection of His."

My questions to God were "How has God been playful with me?" What limits have I put on God by what I have heard, seen, or felt. At the end there was a question and answer time and it was interesting that someone asked how we can share this intimacy with God that we have experienced. This hit me because I recently have been struggling with this. His answer was to show by our lives. People are longing for life and the thirsty will draw near, BUT we have to wait for people to be thirsty. We can't make them be thirsty. :)

Lastly, I think these things hit me the most. He used his life over the past year or two as an example. He said last summer he was going through a rough time. He didn't feel like he was hearing from God and God had taken some of the things that he uses to be "playful" with him away. He pointed out that when we love something more than God will take it away. We have to be careful to not make an idol out of things we love, people, things, passions, etc. I was thinking back to my job in America. I lost my job kind of randomly and it hasn't always fit together as to why. I did my job well and was very dedicated to it. BUT I think in some ways I put that and being good at my job before God at times. While there may have been other factors to things and God has used it for His glory by bringing me to Poland, I needed to leave my job to draw closer to Him. John explained that we have been deceived that a relationship with Jesus is easy. Because it is something amazing and wonderful we are going to have to fight for it.

Right before it ended a guy stood up and asked some questions about women. It was fun to see his answers and reactions while answering. He pointed out that most people believe that Eve was an after thought but that creation Ascended starting with earth, sea, plant, animal, man, And then he ends with Woman. Eve is the picture of mercy and unconditional love of God and his tenderness. Also, most women hate their vulnerability because it causes pain but it is a beauty. He says that for us to know the true heart of a woman is to look at a little girl. All that little girl wants is to be Seen and chosen just like God.