Excerpt from The Journey of Desire

I finally finished a book I've been reading for the past few months, The Journey of Desire by John Eldredge. It was one of the best books I've read in a while. I could probably write a good compare/contrast paper with this book and the book I read before it called How Successful People Win by Ben Stein. Maybe I will in another post

I had an idea just now to write excerpts from the book from time to time or until I forget or until I move on to something else. I had some eloquent thoughts that I was going to pen about the book, but somehow with three boys throwing around tiny legos next to me, my brain feels mushy again. Anyhoo, here's the excerpt;

From pages 193-194: "Spiritual surrender is not resignation. It is not choosing to care no longer. Nor is it Eastern mysticism, and attempt to get beyond the suffering of this life by going completely numb. As my dear friend Jan describes, "It is surrender with desire, or in desire." Desire is still present, felt, welcomed even. But the will to secure is made subject to the divine will in an act of abandoned trust. Think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Frederick Buechner has suggested that we contrast him with a picture we have of Buddha, so that we might see the difference of true surrender:

• Buddha sits enthroned beneath the Bo-tree in the lotus position. His lips are faintly parted in the smile of one who has passed beyond every power in earth or heaven to touch him. "He who loves fifty has fifty woes, he who loves ten has ten woes, he who loves non has no woes," he has said. His eyes are closed.

• Christ, on the other hand, stands in the garden of Gethsemane, angular, beleaguered. His face is lost in the shadows so that you can't even see his lips, and before all the powers on earth or heaven he is powerless. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you," he has said.

Christ is weeping freely; his prayers are marked by loud cries and tears. He makes it very, very clear what he desires. Not once, but three times he begs his father to remove this awful cup from him: "Yet not my will, but thine be done." He surrenders with desire, in desire. Making himself poor, he opens up to us the treasures of heaven. Buddha abandons his desire; Christ surrenders his will. It is no small difference."

This photo was just taken shortly before Gray broke another glass ornament from the tree that we thought was too high for him. Yes, it is Saturday afternoon, and my baby is still in jamas. How shameful! His pjs might look familiar.