Quest for Meaning - January 31
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 56, 57, [58]; PM Psalm 64, 65; Gen. 19:1-17(18-23)24-29; Heb. 11:1-12; John 6:27-40
“Many people are convinced that there is something terribly wrong with the world in which they live and feel that cooperation with existing models of living constitutes a kind of betrayal of the self. Everywhere we see restless and nervous people, unable to concentrate and often suffering from a growing sense of depression. They know that what it shouldn’t be the way it is, but they see no workable alternative. Thus they are saddled with frustration, which often expresses itself in undirected, purposeless violence, or in suicidal withdrawal from the world, both of which are signs more of protest than of the results of a new-found ideal.”[1]
I’m struck with these words from fifty years ago as Henri Nouwen is trying to explain ministry in Contemporary Society and the problem that plagues humanity. He is describing the sense of loss of rootedness amongst people that have them wandering and searching, but more than anything dissatisfied with the human experience. Life fails to fill the vast emptiness felt and people are left unsettled with the human condition. His words could have easily been written today as people search for the right neighborhood, gadget, feeling, or church to feel as if they finally understand what they are searching for in life only to find themselves more dissatisfied than ever.
“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life,” says Jesus to his friends in the Gospel of John. He is reminding them of their goals which focus on the temporal world. Most recently, I visited my parents who have just moved from their home of thirty-three years into a two-bedroom condominium. This of course meant me renting a U-Haul to bring many things that I do not need to Birmingham.
What was more unsettling was the years of belongings and things acquired that were almost instantly diminished to having no value. My sister and I looked upon things with shrugged shoulders wondering how in the world we save all of these things to which the answer was an overwhelming, “We can’t.”
We live in a world which is temporal in nature which drives us to wonder how we best spend what limited gift of presence we have, a quest for meaning. Maybe that is what drives us to faith. Jesus’s words offer us a radical alternative and truth to the all-consuming identity quest of contemporary society.
To set our eyes on that which is eternal – that is the solution of the Christian faith. I am convinced more than ever that the problem of contemporary society isn’t just the identity crisis exacerbated by the drive to find fulfillment out of what is temporary, but more the inability to find the permanence of the eternal nature of compassion, sacrifice, and humility. The great paradox of our faith is when we offer the only commodity that we cannot gain more of, time and presence, when we give it away, we begin to find a glimmer of eternity.
John+
[1] M., Nouwen Henri J. The Wounded Healer. Doubleday (An Image Book), 1972
Questions for Self Reflection: Consider writing out some of your goals in life. Examine those goals and see if they aline with your values after reading this reflection.
Daily Challenge: Give away time and presence today. What does that mean to you?