EMPTINESS & THE HUMAN CONDITION
Jesus said he hadn't come to steal from anyone! He came to bring life to the full (John 10). Doctors and physicists, ditch-diggers and bricklayers, school-teachers or auto-mechanics—not one of them is poorer at the job because they meet and embrace Jesus as Lord. It doesn't matter where you find yourself in life, Jesus only enriches you.
Still, for all our talk many of us tire of living. He offers more than we can presently embrace and enjoy all the time. Sometimes it doesn't matter how lovely the meal our host or wife or husband or parent sets before us—we're simply not in the mood, we have no appetite for it. Who knows why this is so when we ourselves can't put our finger on the reason why gloom [or something like it] settles on us? Of course we can make educated guesses, sensible guesses, but in the end it is what it is. The "human condition" is prone to vague [or a deep] sense of emptiness in life [have you read Ecclesiastes lately?].
In Spielberg's E.T. the little alien is befriended by a boy, who, if it came to it, would give his life for the little creature. And what's more ETsenses this and finds a deep pleasure, even joy, in the child's company. However brief the relationship it was one of those that blossomed immediately, as if it was meant to be. You might have seen such a thing or, if you've been very blessed, you might have experienced one like it. A lot depends on the persons involved, doesn't it? It seems some people can love a lifetime in only a few moments and others, poor souls, seem not to be able to commit to love even for a few moments even in a lifetime.
The child asks ET where he lives, pointing to a place on a world map and then to himself, indicating where he lived. That was his home and he asks ET where his home was. The little alien makes some balls float in the air to illustrate galaxies and then waddling to the window he points out into the night sky and with a heart-jerking and mournful tone he says, "Home." Several times in the movie we hear that mournful, missing-home tone as he expresses the hurt he feels, "Home."
I'm not now speaking of those whose lives are one prolonged crucifixion. Most of us have some pain and loss to bear even though we truly believe that all in all we have a good life. But however fine life is for us—if we're not hedonist to the core—don't you experience a weariness sometimes? Some say they never do and I fully believe them and I'm glad for them. But for the rest of us I suspect we get world-weary. Sometimes, however rarely, there comes the distant but definite longing just to lay down "the burden" of existing. Just to go to sleep—permanently! We can all, I'm sure, make a list of possible reasons for those feelings and I'm sure too that some of them would be on target.
It doesn't seem to matter that our finances are adequate, our family is loving and supportive and doing well. It doesn't seem to matter that we have a job that is satisfying in the various ways we think important or that our health is better than we have a right to expect. We're able to enjoy music, creation, friends, political freedom, the respect of our peers and the other things that make life sweet. And yet…here it comes…that sense of…unease or weariness; a loneliness that [in the words of Paul Williams] "fills the wishing well and fills the bars" sets in.
The boy was all to ET that he could be and he would have been more if he could—gladly! But for all his longing to please and satisfy him, he still sees ET waddle to the window, point into the night sky with that long bulbous finger and sadly say, "Home!"
And if it should be that every now and then when, despite your blessings and despite the fact that you know you are richly blessed, you feel an inner emptiness, don't deny it, acknowledge it. It might well be God nibbling at the edges of your mind, telling you that you were made for more than all you now have; that in truth you'll always be "homesick" away from profound fellowship with God. It might well be that while gratefully enjoying what you have some night you should look into the heavens and hear yourself saying, "Home."
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.