from waking the dead by john eldredge…a reminder that life is a journey.
“Remember, the purpose of this thing called the Christian life is that our hearts might be restored and set free. That’s the deal. That’s what Jesus came to do, by his own announcement. Jesus wants Life for us, Life with a capital L, and that Life comes to us through our hearts. But restoring and releasing the heart is no easy project. God doesn’t just throw a switch and poof—it’s done. He sends his Counselor to walk with us instead. That tells us it’s going to be a process. All sorts of damage has been done to your heart over the years, all sorts of terrible things taken in—by sin, by those who should have known better, and by our Enemy, who seeks to steal and kill and destroy the image bearers of God. At best, “hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Prov. 13:12). Certainly there’s been a bit of that in your life. “Even in laughter the heart may ache” (Prov. 14:13), which is to say, things may look fine on the outside, but inside it’s another story.