Monday, March 5, 2012

Captivated


 Captivating.
Talk about a word that isn’t used often, but is loaded with meaning.
What do you think of after reading that word? Maybe it’s a landscape so rich in beauty and colors it strongly whispers of a Maker. Or maybe it’s a book that snatches you from reality and envelops you in a story. Or it could be music that translates your emotions into sound, with lyrics that voice your thoughts with incredible accuracy.
I could keep going for a long time…but let’s just say my thoughts go on over-drive when I simply see the word “captivating”.  
And who would have thought it, there’s even a book called Captivating (by John & Stasi Eldredge). I should have finished it much sooner than I did, but GEUSS WHAT?! It made me think so much about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness (cliché saying=check) that I couldn’t read more than a few paragraphs without setting the book down and getting lost in thought.
That’s a lot of thinking. And it’s almost as much ink from underlining the sentences piercing my heart.
 You see, to write out what I learned from a whole book in one blog post is impossible. It really is. 
Basically, (and this where you go “oh boyyyyy”) Captivating is the layout of a woman’s heart and how she was created to be. Scary, right? Very. But it’s begging to be revealed. I want to share something that I had never realized before…
So many women are wounded, hurting, and broken. They may not show it, but it’s there. Why? Because this world is broken. But is there more? Doesn’t it seem like there’s a special assault against women, starting way back with Eve? Why? “No explanation for the assault upon Eve and her daughters is sufficient unless it opens our eyes to the Prince of Darkness and his special hatred of femininity” (Eldregde 84). Let me attempt to explain this. Google Ezekial 28:12-14, 17, or actually look it up in your Bible *gasp*. Lucifer was a stunning angel. Beautiful and radiant. It was his ruin, for pride crept in and destroyed him. He was jealous of God, wanting all the praise, honor, and worship for himself. That’s when God kicked him out of Heaven.  Naturally, this angel-turned-devil takes his revenge on God’s most beautiful creation: woman. She embodies God’s glory and gives life. What Satan cannot have drives his assault on femininity.
Think about it…in almost every fairy tale the hero’s true love is attacked by the villain. Rapunzel’s supposed mother attacks her heart by filling it with doubt about Flynn’s love for her *cough cough Eugene*. The witch goes after Sleeping Beauty. And Satan has a special burning hatred for women.

“He fears who you are, what you are; what you might become. He fears your beauty and your life-giving heart” (Eldredge 91).
Now read Jeremiah 30:16-17.
“You are passionately loved by the God of the universe. You are passionately hated by His enemy” (Eldredge 92).

So understand this- There is a raging war against the heart of a woman. But that is most definitely not the end of the story…there is One who is bigger than any twisted lie and crushed, tattered dream. His name is Healer. 
And He will captivate you.

1 comment: