Sunday, March 10, 2013

Closer to the Promised Land

"I'm just trying to live in the moment," she explained in the middle of a very crowded Tybee Island Social Club.

We'd gone to listen to the band but found ourselves talking instead. She is a mother, artist and long term island resident. Her companion recently returned to Tybee after three years in the Bahamas where he'd managed a private resort. It had burned him out and he's now trying to figure out what's next in his life.

"We're all at the crux of life aren't we," I said forming a cross with my hands and everyone nodded.

In fact, I seem to find myself surrounded by a community of the crux, a people trying to figure out the direction of their lives because the security of the way it used to be isn't there anymore ... or no longer satisfies ... or we embrace our unhappiness resolved to find joy again.

So we embark on a journey to find ourselves.

We leave the job, get the divorce, move to another place, find a new church or quit the old one. Half of us have already done these things while the other half are desperate but can't quite pull the trigger so they're stuck in the middle ... frozen in fear of the unknown.

When God told Abraham to leave his home and go find the Promised Land, the old man had no idea where he was going. He just went. It's a major act of faith to begin a journey when you haven't the faintest idea of the destination.

Unfortunately, religion doesn't much deal in faith anymore. It's opted for conviction instead.

It seems to me though that God likes to get the ball rolling and leave it to us to determine when and where it stops.

Perhaps it's the question of people in their fifties. We've done so much but it doesn't seem we've arrived at where we thought. We labor for things we're not passionate about. We live with someone we don't love. A routine gives us comfort because nothing else does.

I don't believe in such things.

I don't think God wants us to settle either which is were faith comes in.

If we never get up and leave the things that keep us in the crux ... in the puzzling and unsolvable life we live ... then we never get any closer to the Promised Land.