"I still haven't found what I'm Looking for...." U2

" I have climbed highest mountains....but I still haven't found what I'm looking for." God is a passionate lover. This sometimes gets lost in the litany of "thou shall not's". Christopher West once commented, "why would someone choose to eat from a dumpster, when they are offered the richest foods and choicest wines at the wedding feast of the Lamb?" Remember, heaven is the great wedding feast, Jesus is the bridegroom, you and I are the bride and we are invited to the feast. The devil, on the other hand, offers a counterfeit to love, lust...hence, the dumpster.

John Eldredge is an author whose writings I have followed eagerly. He is a man after God's heart and has a passion to have men discover their "Wild Heart." In his book "Wild at Heart" he posits that somehow in all the theology we have missed God's romantic heart. He notes " that theologians have missed this says more about theologians than it does about God. Music, wine, poetry, sunsets....those were His inventions, not ours. We simly discovered what he had already thought of. Lovers and honeymooners choose places like Hawaii, the Bahamas, or Tuscany as a backdrop for their love. But whose idea was Hawaii the Bahamas, and Tuscany? Let's bring this a little closer to home. Whose idea was it to create the human form that a kiss could be so delicious? And he didn't stop there as lovers know." Eldredge cites the Song of Songs as a good example of God's passionate love. " Your neck is like the tower of Dave, built with elegance....your two breasts are like two fawns...until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain o myrrh and to the hill of incense." ( Song of Songs 4: 4-6). What, that is scripture? Yep. As Eldredge says, "What kind of a God would put the Song of Songs in the canon of Holy Scripture?" A God that knows that sex is not bad. A God who created everything that is true, good, and beautiful. Listen to Pope John Paul on Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece: "Proper portrayals of the naked body teach us in a way that nuptial meaning of the body which corresponds to, and is the measure of, 'purity of heart'" (May 6, 1981)

Because of the incarnation we need not fear finding elements of truth in popular culture. Nobody understood this better than Pope John Paul II. In fact, he once used the example of U2's song "two hearts" as a wonderful example of how two hearts become one in marriage. The Canadian pop music group BNL had a hit entitled "lovers in a dangerous time." Read the Song of Songs. Watch that scene from "A river runs through it" where the two boys run down to the river with the mountains as a backdrop. Take a walk in the woods where you discover the "Cathedral of Pines". Open your eyes on a starry night and marvel that the God of the Universe, the God who created everything true, good, and beautiful, has a passionate heart. He is a romantic lover who will stop at nothing until He has convinced you that he is good. Stay away from the dumpster. Reject the culture that distorts sex and sexuality and Come to the wedding feast of the lamb.