John Eldredge

Just like sunshine affects others, when the life of Jesus invades your life, you become a loving person. The effect on others is amazing.

It takes great courage to be vulnerable. It takes enormous strength to be a real woman.

God lures us into marriage through love and sex and loneliness, or simply the fact that someone finally paid attention - all those reasons that you got married in the first place. It doesn't really matter, he'll do whatever it takes. He lures us into marriage and then he uses it to transform us.

Contentment can only happen as we increase desire, let it run itself out towar its fulfilment, and carry us along with it.

There is no greater place for damage (than marriage) because there is no greater place for glory.

Most men wait to move until victory is guaranteed.

Sartre felt that Hell is other people, but precisely the opposite is true. Hell is being left alone forever with no other reality than your own consciousness of yourself. It is being locked in a casket of your own internal chaos with no hope of a window, or door leading in light from outside to give you a moment's respite from yourself. Hell is the refusal of the gift of the other.

For what shall we do when we wake one day to find we have lost touch with our heart and with it the very refuge where God__ presence resides? a

We describe a person without compassion as __eartless,_ and we urge him or her to __ave a heart._ Our deepest hurts we call __eartaches._ Jilted lovers are __rokenhearted._ Courageous soldiers are __ravehearted._ The truly evil are __lack-hearted_ and saints have __earts of gold._ If we need to speak at the most intimate level, we ask for a __eart-to-heart_ talk. __ighthearted_ is how we feel on vacation. And when we love someone as truly as we may, we love __ith all our heart._ But when we lose our passion for life, when a deadness sets in which we cannot...

In the end, it doesn__ matter how well we have performed or what we have accomplished__ life without heart is not worth living.

We are, all of us, utterly committed and deeply devoted to our "style", our "way", our "approach to life." We have absolutely no intention of giving it up. Not even for love. So God creates an environment where we have to. It's called marriage.

You cannot force people to walk with God. You cannot force them to repent. All you can do is live with integrity and invite them to do so as well. Take things a step at a time. Give them consequences when they refuse to deal with serious issues, and pray. Pray like the dickens. Pray every step of the way.

The years have simply reconciled us to the fact that we are all here for the transformation.

It takes courage to seek God, and courage to wait for His reply.

Should the king in exile pretend he is happy there?Should he not seek his own country?His miseries are his ally; they urge him on. Let them grow, if need be. But do not forsake the secret of life; do not despise those kingly desires. We abandon the most important journey of our lives when we abandon desire. We leave our hearts by the side of the road and head off in the direction of fitting in, getting by, being productive, what have you. Whatever we might gain _ money, position, the approval of others, or just absence of the discontent self _ it__ not worth it.

Now yes, yes, creation sometimes screams a confusing message__ear, pain, grief. Fire burns, rivers flood, winds go hurricane, the earth shudders so hard it levels cities. But you must remember__his was not so in Eden. Mankind fell, surrendering this earth to the evil one. St. Paul says that creation groans for the day of its restoration (see Rom. 8:18_22), making it clear that everything is not as it was meant to be. People come to terrible conclusions when they assume this world is exactly as God intended. (An assumption that has wrought havoc in the sciences.) The earth is broken.Which only makes the beauty that does flow so generously that much more astounding. And reassuring.

Most of our addictions [shopping, food, bad relationships] as women flare up when we feel that we are not loved or sought after.

Sometimes the idea of living as a hermit appeals to all of us. No demands, no needs, no pain, no disappointments. But that is because we have been hurt, are worn out.