It
was to the most religious people of his time that Jesus spoke his strongest
warnings about a loss of heart.
It
is tragic for any person to lose touch with the life of their heart but
especially so for those of us who once heard the call in our heart and
recognized it as the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. We may remember him inviting
us to a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure that we thought was lost. For
others of us, when he called, it felt for the first time in our lives as if our
heart had finally found a home. We responded in faith, in hope, and in love and
began the journey we call the Christian life. Each day seemed a new adventure
as we rediscovered the world with God by our side.
But for many of us,
the waves of first love ebbed away in the whirlwind of Christian service and
activity, and we began to lose the Romance. Our faith began to feel more like a
series of problems that needed to be solved or principles that had to be
mastered before we could finally enter into the abundant life promised us by
Christ.
We moved our spiritual life into the outer world of activity, and
internally we drifted. We sensed that something was wrong, and we perhaps tried
to fix it—by tinkering with our outer life. We tried the latest spiritual fad,
or a new church, or simply redoubled our commitment to make faith work. Still,
we found ourselves weary, jaded, or simply bored. Others of us immersed
ourselves in busyness without really asking where all the activity was headed.
At one point in my own spiritual pilgrimage, I stopped to ask myself this
question: "What is it that I am supposed to be doing to live the
spiritual life in any way that is both truthful and passionately alive?" (The
Sacred Romance, 7-8)
Do we have life with a mission, or is our life a mission? Is it a compartment in our life that we have on the same level as work, bills, and taxes? Or, does everything come from the mission in our hearts of, one day soon, getting to see our Heavenly Father?
We are given such an amazing gift! If we live our life with purpose and teach our kids to do the same, we are giving them the same gift! No drifting, no wondering, no hum-drum selfish joyless existence. Real direction and meaning! When you come to know the real, true, Love that God has for us, can we really live any other way and not feel unfulfilled?
May God bless you today and always as you search for His leading in your life!
