An Exercise In Knowing

A few years ago, I read a book called Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.  I remember thinking it was a good book, but honestly, I don’t know if I really thought about it a lot after I read it.  I started reading it again this week.

Basically, it is an allegory representing not the conversion of a soul from unsaved to saved, but rather the journey from a (spiritually) young believer to that of someone embracing the life Christ promised- life to the full.

So, this is why I’m writing about this.  The Shepard (Jesus) asks Much Afraid (Yes, that is her name and character) if the flower of Love has been planted in her heart.  After much thought, she answers, “I think that what is growing there is a great longing to experience the joy of natural human love and to learn to love supremely one person who will love me in return.  But perhaps that desire natural and right as it seems, is not the Love of which You are speaking.”

It is definitely the time in my life when I needed to read this, because it blew me away.  It occurred to me that the love most abounding in my heart is not necessarily the Love Christ is trying to grow in me.  That He meant it when He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  ALL.

I have been a Christian for a long time, but there are things that I want more than I want God.  Whoa, whoa, calm down.  I am a follower of Christ.  My life is His.  I try my best to please Him, to follow the path He has laid for me.  I will spend the rest of my life pursuing Him.  But I have learned in the last year that my heart is a land of division.  God has offered me the ocean, and I plead for the thimble of water. (Thank you John Piper.)  I want people to know Christ, but I want to be famous for making Him known.  I want to know Christ more and more, but it isn’t what I daydream about.  My heart is a land of division.

I’ve been thinking about what makes us love one another.  And I’ve decided to apply those realities to my relationship with God.  I believe that knowing Him more would ultimately result in my loving Him more.  So, I have set off on a journey to know Him more.  I hope you are encouraged by it.