Thoughts from Journey of Desire

"Our dilemma is this: we can't seem to live with desire, and we can't live without it. In the face of this quandary most people decide to bury the whole question and put as much distance as they can between themselves and their desires. It is a logical and tragic act. The tragedy is increased tenfold when this suicide of soul is committed under the conviction that this is precisely what Christianity recommends. We have never been more mistaken.
How sad to think that the overwhelming majority of Christians have been taught that desire is an enemy-- maybe even the enemy-- to living a good Christian life. But its true. My guess is, you're among them. I am too. You won't find it easy to travel very far towards desire if some of your deepest beliefs about God are in conflict with your quest. So, in this leg of the journey, ... take a deeper look at what God thinks of your desire, what He says He wants-- not from you, but for you. This could mean a pretty radical reformation of your thoughts about God and the Christian life. (Thats a good thing by the way.)" -- The Journey of Desire, John Eldridge

I see us too often sacrificing the joy that should consume the Christ filled life on the altar of logically throwing off the sin which so easily entangles us, not realizing that we need to separate out the desire from the sin. Instead our repression kills our joy and passion for walking in His steps. And we ponder where our fervor has gone to? Trying vainly to renew it with conferences and new spiritual experiences or books and teachings. Completely unaware that we have cast it off in pursuit of what we thought was a "holy" life, merely because it was sterilized of all human emotion or desire. How Christ longs to use that self same desire for His greater purposes. What the heck did you think He ingrained it in you for? Does He make His children with no purpose? Does He give you desires for no reason? Is there something at the root of what you thought was a evil or sinful desire that is actually a desire for life the way God intended it? Do you find your desire for a mate in life is distracting to your love for God and have therefore avowed to put it away from yourself? Is it perhaps the very way that God ingrained you? Did He not make you to need that rib or desire to be that help meet? Do you long for belonging? Where on this earth do you belong, really? Surely its not to a fallen depraved world where sin runs rampant and confusion is the soup du jour, but to a heavenly dwelling where the King of peace rules in perfect order, serenely surrounded by constant praise.
How often in our pursuit of godliness have we cut from our lives that small fuel for it that makes us long for things eternal. Can we really dissect our feelings from this life and live as a shell of who we ought to be in Christ's presence? If you have truly rid all the desire from your life, how can you long to be more His?