for listening hearts

"Some of us begin with God at an early age and run far away, searching for what our hearts long for. Like Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, our long journey will lead us back to where we began, but we return as changed people with new eyes to see what once we were blind to. I meet many people who are running from God, angry with God, and yet at the same time desperately searching for him. If God is love, it is maddening when we are running from God and yet searching for love."

"The truth of the matter is that we're uncomfortable with God. We're disoriented by the way he loves.We want God to love us for an endless number of good reasons.At the same time, we find ourselves nervous before him because he sees right through us and knows everything that isn't lovable. He tells us that he is our place of rest and acceptance and unconditional love, yet we cannot reconcile this love. We know who we are. We know all that is unlovely within us. We wonder who we have become worthy of such love, and that's what worries us - we know we're not. So we run.We run from God because he sees us best; we run from God to escape our own sense of unworthiness; we run from God because we are certain that the closer we come to him, the more guilt and same we will feel.It's just too hard to believe that if you come near to God, you will find yourself not drowning in condemnation, but swimming in compassion.Jesus called to all who were weary and who found their souls exhausted to come to him and find rest. He is telling us that God will be for us our place called home. We run from God because we long to be loved and we have convinced ourselves that the One who is most loving could not and would not embrace us.We run from the One our souls crave.It is insanity to run from God and search for love."

"In the end all religions misrepresent God. They either dictate requirements for love or simply become a requiem for love. I think many of us have rightly given up on God on this basis alone. We've been told that God is a reluctant lover and that his standards must be met before there can be any talk of love. This is lunacy. Love exists because God is love. Our souls will never find satisfaction until our hearts have found this love that we so desperately yearn for."

excerpts from "Soul Cravings" - Erwin McManus