Longing for Home
Today I am continuing my reflections which are loosely based upon Susan Cain’s book Bittersweet… and I’ll be writing out a few thoughts here about her second chapter which is mostly written around the concept of longing.
I find myself almost constantly in a state of longing. I know that outwardly, I can put off a calmness and ‘settledness’ for others… but inwardly, I am almost always sitting in some type of restlessness. How I interact with the seasons is a good example of this: In the summer, I look forward to the sound of the locusts because I know that cooler air is coming and with it… golden leaves, baseball playoffs, football and the start of my favorite stretch of holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas). In late fall, I look forward to the first snowfall — to enjoying Christmas decor/music and celebrating Christmas with family. As soon as New Year’s Day is over… I want all the snow gone… I want the air warm… I want baseball back… and I want to a) skip January and February altogether or b) move someplace where it only snows on Christmas Day and is warm the rest of the year. In the spring, all I can think about is getting to summer when everyone in my household is off (except me) and when I am able to take the bulk of my vacation time.
It occurs to me that I probably need to do a better job of being present in the moment and enjoying each season for what it is. However, before I beat myself up too much… I will let some of Cain’s thoughts give me hope here: She makes two statements: “Longing is the road to belonging (p.28).” and “Longing itself is a creative and spiritual state (p.28).” Or as C.S. Lewis puts it: “The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born.”
Perhaps longing is a God-given gift to remind us that we are not quite ‘home’ yet. There is more to come. Even as we experience longing here and now… we are also reminded of the resurrection life that is to come. In this chapter, Cain mentions music as a place where people are able to give voice to their longing. Many of us connect deeply with ballads or a reflective worship song or the blues. There is longing etched into those songs and it connects deeply with the longing that is etched deeply in each of us.
As a massive U2 fan, I remember when they got in trouble for writing the song I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. People said that it was their declaration that they were leaving the Christian faith behind. I never interpreted the song that way… and Cain’s chapter helps me put words around it. So much of U2’s music is built on longing and moving forward into the unknown. ‘I Still Haven’t Found’ was not a dismissal of Christianity… it was a declaration they never wanted to stop growing and learning and evolving as a band and as humans.
Longing reminds us to never stop growing, never stop learning, never stop pursuing the things of Jesus. Longing also reminds us that when we are in Christ… our best days are ALWAYS in front of us.
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (I Corinthians 13:12, NIV)