“Life is a journey” has become a common phrase in the West.  In the present culture it seems it is the trip taken, not the destination that matters.  Many, including Christians, blithely ask each other about their spiritual “journey” without considering the source of the term or its general implications in society.  According to some Eastern religious views, life is not about ends but about process.  The idea is not so much that one is on the way to somewhere but simply out and about.  Story, character, and relationship are artificially separated from conclusion, destination, and truth.

 

Hindu beliefs, for instance, claim the soul is on a cosmic journey to purify itself as it is reincarnated over and over in other bodies.[1]  One can purchase a “Life is a Journey” clock which “reminds us that every path in life is apart of the journey, the destination isn’t the goal, it’s making the trip . . . “[2]

 

Anime[3] creators were having a discussion this month comparing the concepts of journey versus destination.  One cartoonist is “convinced that storytelling’s a matter of preparation and resolution; ‘getting there’ might be diverting, but there ought to be a ‘there’ to get to and I’m not happy if I’m asked to supply the ‘there’ myself.”[4]

 

Scripture sets the standard for destination.  There are paths of uprightness[5], justice[6], and life[7].  Individuals are also given paths: Jeroboam, Ahab, Balaam, David, and Paul[8].  Clear teachings in both testaments establish an eternal end for believers and nonbelievers from Job[9] to David[10] to Malachi.[11]

 

History, intentionality, identity, and consummation must form the framework for our path toward Christian residence with Jesus.[12]  Jesus, whose constant linkage with the Old Testament established the historic roots of the Christian message, says that He himself is “from the Father” laying out His eternal history.[13]  Our Lord’s strict teaching about a “narrow path” demands designation, not wandering, as our goal in life.[14]  Our identity with Christ is clear.[15]  And Jesus’ teaching about “ends” (e.g., heaven and hell) is more than any other speaker in the New Testament.

 

So what does this teaching about the Christian path mean for everyday life?  Jesus is the way, the path, which leads to life.[16]  There is only one road on which one’s end is eternal life.  Life is not about “finding oneself” on some nebulous “search.”  A “journey” for the Christian always has a final outcome, a goal, an end, a destination.  Believers should be careful in using seemingly benign terminology to express how we live.  Because of Providence, our plans, our ways, are ordered by Heaven.[17]  We should revisit the straightforward and famous injunction from Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

 

Alan Jacobs, quoting Joseph Pieper writes, “’The concept of the status viatoris is one of the basic concepts of every Christian rule of life.  To be a ‘viator’ means ‘one on the way.’  The status viatoris is, then, the ‘condition or state of being on the way.’  Its proper antonym is status comprehensoris.  One who has comprehended, encompassed, arrived, is no longer a viator, but a comprehensor.’

 

If we Christians can learn to think of our lives as . . . stories that move along recognizable paths, paths followed by our predecessors and indeed by our contemporary companions in the faith—we will be better prepared for the status viator, better protected from the twin dangers of presumption and despair, better able to see changes in the road as continuations of it rather than detours from it or dead ends.”[18]

 

A Christian’s life is one of being “on the way” given by one Guide, with clearly marked, true directions on a specific highway leading toward a final destination. 

 

Maps: Finding Our Place in this World[1] tells the story of life and lives through cartography (the study of maps).  A companion volume to a Chicago Field Museum exhibit, Maps chronicles that geography is more than simply the lay of the land.  According to the editors, an atlas charts not simply the place people live but how that place changes people.

It seems obvious from Genesis 10, that where a person lives impacts what they do and how they live.  We all come from “common stock”: all people everywhere are equal since we are all “blood”[2].  Yet, it is The Table of Nations genealogy which emphasizes the connection land has to people.  Land Creates Vocations[3]: where one lives may determine what he will do in life (e.g., living near water may indicate a maritime career).  Land Creates Nations[4]: clans, nations, languages, territories indicate sovereignty of what is “theirs”.  Land Creates Home[5]: God set places for all to live.

Perhaps a map tells us as much about us as it does about our location.  In this fifth and final segment concerning “place” I thought it would be good to hear from a person whose life has been shaped by a place.  Rob and Deb Wingerter are the patrons of Mahseh Center.  Rob’s vision for a retreat-study center began twenty years ago on Lake Bruce.  Deb’s family roots here go back sixty-five years, allowing Mahseh to become reality.  Here, in Deb’s own words, is the link between people and place, between roadmaps and heart-maps:

On April 17, 2007 my mother, Dortha Strong Waidner left this world and joined Jesus in heaven.  She was 91 years old and had lived a long and full life.  She first came to Lake Bruce in the 1930’s because her grandfather John Morton Strong had a trailer on Guise Park Road.  He didn’t own land there but he did some work for the Guises and so they let him park his trailer there.  In 1941 my grandfather Clarence Strong purchased five lots from Linc Overmeyer with the intention of building a cabin for his father.  Clarence also wanted a place to come and fish and relax at the end of his work week at Studebakers in South Bend.  The war came along, my uncles were drafted, and the cabin was not built until 1946.  During construction John Morton Strong died.  So the cabin was used by all the Strong’s and their church friends for resting and fishing.

In 1947 Dortha returned from living in California and Lake Bruce became her refuge, a place of peace and renewal.   In June of 1955 when I was 8 months old my mother packed up me, my older sister and my nephew Billy and my dad drove us to Lake Bruce.  We stayed there all summer and early fall.  My dad came on the weekends and my mother and sister had no car during the week.  When groceries were needed or ice for the icebox, my sister would row the fishing boat across the lake to Johnny Dillinger’s store.  They had no indoor plumbing, washed the diapers by hand and hung them on the line to dry.  But once again Lake Bruce was my mother’s refuge, a place for healing and hope.

Over the years my mother and father developed many close friendships at Lake Bruce.  May Kline who lived in the house (now gone) at the corner of Lake Shore Drive and 150N was a close friend of my mother’s and my grandmother’s.  It was May’s father Linc who had owned all the land on the east shore.  Bill and Margaret Werner who lived in the old Lake Bruce Hotel next to the railroad tracks (now gone) were also good friends.  Margaret knew everything that went on at Lake Bruce and anything you told her would most likely end up in the Observer where Bill worked.

Lake Bruce has always been a special place created by God for people to come to for refuge and retreat. The peace and tranquility that comes with God’s presence is there for all who come and open their hearts to it.  For 61 years it was my mother’s refuge.  Now she is where there is no need for refuge.  Heaven, where there are no tears, no sorrow, no pain, is her home now.  She was welcomed by my father, my sister, my grandparents, Bill and Margaret, May, and many, many others.  I am so thankful that God has given me and my family this refuge to keep us going in this broken world until He calls us home.

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[1] James R. Akerman and Robert W. Karrow, editors.  University of Chicago Press, 2007.

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:47-49; Ephesians 3:14, 15.

[3] Genesis 10:5.

[4] Genesis 10:5, 20, 31.

[5] Genesis 10:32; cf. Acts 17:26.

July 3, 2009

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July 5, 2009

July 10, 2009

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July 11, 2009

Does one’s identity depend upon a cause and ultimately, a place?  George Eliot examines this among other themes in her book Daniel Deronda.  An oft quoted line (included, for example, as the frontice frame to the movie Gods and Generals) she presses the issue of identity and place:  

A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of a native land, where it may get the love of tender kinship for the face of earth, for the labours men go forth to, for the sounds and accents that haunt it, for whatever will give that early home a familiar unmistakable difference amidst the future widening of knowledge: a spot where the definiteness of early memories may be inwrought with affection, and kindly acquaintance with all neighbours, even to the dogs and donkeys, may spread not by sentimental effort and reflection, but as a sweet habit of the blood . . . The best introduction to astronomy is to think of the nightly heavens as a little lot of stars belonging to one’s own homestead.[1] 

John Milton called it Paradise Lost; being displaced from our place in the Garden of Eden.  What was lost, however, will be regained, the ground retained[2].  Not only will believers be fully restored to their original state as “Adam,” but the ground (“adamah”) too will be returned as “the garden of Eden”[3]. 

From Genesis two we have been rooted to the ground.  We have a place and know our place.  We invest in our place.  Place is property and ownership.  Place demands a boundary.  Place identifies individuality and nationality.  Place must be protected.  Place can be holy or a memorial.  Without a place we are lost, nomads, “a man without a country.”  Because we are linked to a place we will fight for it. 

Owning a piece of ground produces thoughtful reflection.  All people should be reminded where they came from (the ground) and where they are going to (the ground).  We are participants with God in managing the creation.  Having a “home” is important to everyone.  Community necessitates a place.  To be in community with others, The Church’s place is to know its place—its setting, its neighbors, its culture, its locale.  For the believer “this world IS my home, I’m NOT just passin’ through,” contrary to the gospel tune.   

Established documents at my church, Zionsville Fellowship, Zionsville, IN, explain the concept under the heading “The Church as a Community [first section]” 

Community, if it is practical, implies geographical closeness . . . Be careful about moving frequently.  Mobility can be destructive to community.  It has been easy for Christians to fall into the patterns of our secular world, which has little regard for community or continuity.  Present relationships are often sacrificed for another job, house, or new pleasure . . . .”[4] 

When I sit out on the gazebo on the lake at Mahseh Center, on a clear night it is as if God has laid out a blanket of stars on black linen.  I have often thought of Eliot’s comment while there.  I think about my place on this earth.  I am grateful for worldwide beauty.  I cherish my country, the United States of America.  I enjoy all the wonders in the great state of Indiana.  And I am a homebody—if I have a choice to go or stay it will most likely mean the car stays in the garage. 

Yet there is a restlessness in me for “the new heavens and new earth.”[5]  One of my professors in grad school would tell of his great longing to set up a bait shop at the southern tip of The Dead Sea when Jesus’ return would let fresh water flow through it.[6]  Maybe I can visit Dr. Knife at his sea and he can visit me at my lake. 

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[1] George Eliot. 1876, 1984. Daniel Deronda. Harmondsworth, p. 50.

[2] Genesis 28:14-15; cf. 1 Kings 8:34, 40; 13:34; 14:15; 2 Kings 21:8; 25:21; Nehemiah 10:37.

[3] Ezekiel 36:24-30, 35; cf. Jeremiah 31:33-34; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 8:8-12. 

[4] Zionsville Fellowship, Statement of Belief and Practice, pages 4, 36, 38. 

[5] Revelation 21:1

[6] Ezekiel 47:1-10

October 11, 2008 10:00 am

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October 12, 2008 10:00 am