Sacred Thirst: Meeting God in the Desert of Our Longings

In this deep, inspiring book, Barnes plays with biblical images of deserts, flowing streams and living waters, applying them to contemporary life. He says that he wrote the book especially for Christians who find themselves in a spiritual desert with a sense of ""soul sadness"" or spiritual loneliness, having lost the astonishment and joy of their faith. Barnes, senior pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., notes that in the Old and New Testaments, characters from the patriarchs to Jesus used such desert experiences as metaphors for pilgrimage toward God. Today's Christians can use their spiritual deserts toward that same end, seeking God's flowing streams of mercy to sustain and refresh them as they journey to the Promised Land. Barnes cautions that often Christians mistake their intellectual knowledge, prayers, church attendance and good works as replacements for God; he claims that making idols of these activities creates a sense of dissatisfaction and a longing for more. Often Christians settle for the desert, but Barnes says that ""sacred thirst"" can call them from barren spirituality to embrace the holy joy of God. Just as Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that he could give her living waters and she would never thirst, so he promises contemporary followers that the Holy Spirit is the living water that restores parched souls. Barnes's powerful and beautifully written book is a balm to the weary pilgrim. (Jan.)