Going Deep with Jesus.  During my time in Hawaii God is taking me deeper into His love.  This journey as most of you can relate, requires us to shed some of our old man.  C.S. Lewis wrote it so well in the story of Eustace from the, Voyage of the Dawn Treader part of his Narnia series.  Eustace was a boy who was selfish and prideful and as a result of his greed became a dragon (you should read the book! It is my favorite in the series).  Aslan the lion (symbolic of Jesus) met this dragon (boy) at a well of water on the top of a mountain.  

Here is an excerpt that so vividly describes my journey, "The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe, it would ease the pain in my leg.  But the lion told me I must undress first.  So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place.  And then I scratched a little deeper and instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like is does after an illness or as if I was a banana.  In a minute or two I just stepped out of it.  I could see it lying there beside me looking rather nasty.  It was a most lovely feeling.  So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.  But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before.  Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one...Well, exactly the same thing happened again.  And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off?  For I was longing to bathe my leg.  So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it.  But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.  Then the lion said, 'you will have to let me undress you,' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now.  So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.  The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart.  And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt.  The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...Well he peeled the beastly stuff right off-just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt-and there it was, lying on the grass, only ever much thicker, and darker, and more knobby-looking than the others had been... Then he caught hold of me-I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on and threw me into the water.  It smarted like anything but only for a moment.  After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. I'd become a boy again."

Lewis writes it so well.  God is jealous for our full affection.  He gives us life and restores us bringing fullness.  I feel as though His "claws" have gone in deep and I will come out of this well, this season transformed.  Have your way Jesus!