Maybe this has a lot more to do with the Koran thing than I first thought.
MacUser points out something, without using the phrase, that I've heard somewhere else (can't recall) -- but it is a "lust for God". I'm not sure enough about the whole nature of lust to say that that's even possible or not, but I can imagine a "lust for God" two different ways.
First, the really good one. David wrote that as a deer pants for water, my soul longs for you, O God. Maybe that's more like thirst than lust. But, think about it: Lust --- the bad kind we all agree on --- tells us that we gotta have it, that having "it" is the only way to get satisfaction, and that this satisfaction is a must-have. We know that about lust. That's a reason why you have to run from it and can't stand and fight it. The writer of one Proverb says that trying that strategy is like putting fire in your lap without burning your clothes.
What about a good lust? Thirst is that impulse to drink, and when strong enough it is a drive to drink that is so strong that when you do get to a cold, tall glass of water (or Diet Mt. Dew!!!) that you'll "guzzle" it down. (Que the sound effect of the 3 Stooges drinking a glass jug of water.
) That's the kind of impulse toward God that David described in the psalm, at least that's the impression I get. I really never gave much thought to that as a kind of lust, but the Greek grammar suggests that the word is neutral enough to be applied to both.
So, let's take that as a given, then. If it be so, what is this thing that drives a guy like Terry Jones to burn a Koran. Take him at his own words about what motivated him. He said that it was a conviction that he felt from God to do it. He backed up, saying God told him not to do it, not now, not ever. Which one of these was a lust for God? Both? (Did he truly, sincerely think that God wanted him to do it only to "show" him something about Himself through stopping him from it? Well, we can't say God never worked that way, can we Abraham and Issac?
) Neither? (Was he just swept up in his own cloud of misguided belief and then it took on a life much bigger than he ever thought and he backed down?) Something in between???
What does all of this suggest about being a God-follower vs. being a God-chaser? (Apologies to Tommy Tenney, whose book I never read nor plan to, for borrowing his trademark.) To switch analogies, it makes me think of football in a way. We've seen defenses that overpursue, who'll run right past the blockers but fail to get in the right position to tackle and miss the ball-carrier; when that happens on a blitz, the play gets big yards where everyone has run past the runner. Can we "overpursue" God? Can we run right past Him when we say we are running for or to Him??
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).
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