Our God Reigns by Delirious just started and I’m stuck, unmoving beyond today’s devotional from John Eldredge:

Every woman is in some way searching for or running from her beauty and every man is looking for or avoiding his strength. Why? In some deep place within, we remember what we were made to be, we carry with us the memory of gods, image-bearers walking in the Garden. So why do we flee our essence? As hard as it may be for us to see our sin, it is far harder still for us to remember our glory. The pain of the memory of our former glory is so excruciating, we would rather stay in the pigsty than return to our true home. We are like Gomer, wife of the prophet Hosea, who preferred to live in an adulterous affair rather than be restored to her true love.

We are the ones to be Fought Over, Captured and Rescued, Pursued. It seems remarkable, incredible, too good to be true. There really is something desirable within me, something the King of the universe has moved heaven and earth to get….

If your heart skipped a beat, if your soul ached when you read Johns devotional, then you are like me.  You know there is more.  And whether you are running away from your strength or beauty or towards it, you know it is there.

Could it be that we carry in our  hearts the essence of our Creator?  Is it possible that as creation, something of beauty exists inside of us?

We are the ones to be fought over.  You and I.  Prized so much, valued so highly, worth enough to be fought for and over, precious enough to be pursued.  You and I, our hearts are valued, valuable, worthy of love.  And if they are worthy of love then they must be capable of loving in ways we’ve not yet understood.

So go forward, run after your strength, your beauty.  Stumble towards the you that you can be, that you need to be.  Learn about your heart, this amazing love, and never be the same.