Allure of Hope

My friend Mel sent me Allure of Hope: God's Pursuit of a Woman's Heart by Jan Meyer. I only a little into it, but it's really good so far.

"We are far more disciplined than we are at rest, far more committed than winsome, far more 'nice' than passionate, far more dutiful than free. Far more weary than filled with hope."

"It's hard -moving into life while carrying around an unmet hope or desire."

"Hope remembers things lost and envisions things not yet known."

"When did the cards we write turn from whimsy to practicality? When did openheartedness turn to skittishness and timidity? What was being whispered to us as these changes occurred?

"We quietly questions whether there is enough loveliness in us to keep others engaged with out hearts."

"We think of hope as something "out there" that we either find or lost. The reality is, hope is something that rises up inside of us with a gentle strength that requires a response. We either respond to it with out hearts or we try to push it down. Responding to it brings a deepened sense of thirst, a deepened ache. Responding to it reminds of us what it truly means to be a woman. Trying to push it down is another story altogether. Notice I sad "trying" to push it down. Hope is tenacious. Hope always finds us again."

"Why do we insist on telling each other, in ways we perhaps don't intend, that trusting God means making an orderly existence for ourselves, that growing in godliness means we become increasingly satisfied and complete? We tell each other to remember that the suffering will end, but we say these words from hearts that haven't entered the bloody, hot, fierce environment of birth pains. Can our words be trusted?"

"We want freedom from the ache. We want to control the level of groaning in our life. Our search for relief is utterly foolish, yet we demand it with fervor every time we shit off the whispers in our hearts - the whisper to dream, the whisper to acknowledge a current disappointment, the whisper to remember something or someone lost. We desire the thrill of a newborn cry without the months of anticipation and hours of labor-ridden hell."

"Jesus' life was not sterile. He consistently plunged into the unclean places of people's lives and hearts. Not much about it was organized or even made sense. But His life was saturated with vision, and He lived out of a deep sense of mission that propelled Him to take the dusty steps to the most egregious of all birthing places: the cross of Calvary."