yarrr, ye scurvy boy-king, halt ye whinin'

nothing ever changes (by itself.)

"It costs Christ and His followers sharp showers and hot sweats ere they win to
the top of the mountain. But still our soft nature would have heaven coming to
our bedside when we are sleeping, and lying down with us, that we might go to
heaven in warm clothes; but all that came there found wet feet by the way, and
sharp storms that did take the hide off the face, and found to's and fro's and
up's and down's, and many enemies by the way."

That "dragging on the soul," that stretched-out agony of longing - what are these but the sharp showers, hot sweats, wet feet of which that old saint Rutherford wrote so often? His letters are full of them. There has never been any other route to glory. From the earliest stories of Israel to the story of His Son's journey as a man on earth, God has been bringing men always through much tribulation. There is no Strawberry Shortcut.

Was it necessary for God to test the fiber of His children for forty years in the wilderness? Wouldn't forty days have been enough? The process must go on...and on...and on.

John Buchan put it this way: "You have chosen the roughest road, but it goes straight to the hilltops."

Through affairs of the heart God uncovers our true intentions: "whether or no it was in your heart to keep His commandments. He humbled you and made you hungry; then he fed you on manna..."

But it was not manna the people wanted. It was leeks and onions and garlic. It was meat and bread, wine and oil - ordinary food.

So it is with us. We're created men and women. If Adam needed Eve and she was made for him, isn't it natural, then, isn't it altogether fitting and proper, that men and women should hunger for each other?

It is natural indeed. However it's not the only thing God has in mind for us. We are not meant to live merely by what is natural. We need to learn to live by the supernatural. Ordinary fare will not fill the emptiness in our hearts. Bread will not suffice. We need extraordinary fare. We need manna. How else will we educate our tastes for heavenly things if we are surfeited with earthly?

My heart was saying, "Lord, take away this longing, or give me that for which I long." The Lord was answering, "I must teach you to long for something better."

"...He fed you on manna which neither you nor your fathers had known before, to teach you that man cannot live on bread alone but lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

from Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot