At the risk of sounding more metro than necessary, I began reading The Allure of Hope this morning. Written by a chick, for a chick. (I have to use the word ‘chick’  or I’ll lose my ManCard for reading this thing…) It’s part of my Fat Rendering process.

So far, it’s really great. Jan Meyers talks in the first chapter about ‘the ache’ within women, though IMO it’s within us all. There’s an ache to be known intimately, known fully, perfectly vulnerable, yet hopeful of a relentless love despite our wanderings. As God pursues places we’ve locked away…yet we hope and wait for his call to us.

Although her metaphors are mostly of a little girl and her Daddy, I think it holds true universally for us as children and our Abba-given need for a perfect Daddy. (After all, I’m a dude…who wants to be a perfect Dad…but realizes I need to learn how from my Abba Daddy.) And as part of the Fat Rendering process, a quote from Gerald May leapt off the page at me:

"In our society, we have come to believe that discomfort always means something is wrong. We are conditioned to believe that feelings of distress, pain, depriveation, yearning, and longing mean something is wrong with the way we are living our lives.

    Conversely, we ar convinced that a rightly lived life must give us serenity, completion, and fulfillment. Comfort means ‘right’ and distress means ‘wrong’. The influence of such convictions is stifling to the human spirit. Individually and collectively, we must somehow recover the truth. The truth is , we were never meant to be completely satisfied."

We were created with an ache. Disequilibrium is the only thing that ever brings about change. We want our hearts stirred. We want to want. We want to be wanted. We intrinsically know that ‘hope is a painful process’…but we want it anyway.

If you’re a female, I’d suggest you pick it up and read it. I’m only halfway into it and I’m blown away with the insight Meyers has about our heart and our hope.

If you’re a dude, pick it up and read it as well. Just be sure to have Fight Club going in the background.

*Thanks to Stef for nagging me to read this! :) Love you, man!