The Ultimate Human Quest
I got to hang out with one of the coolest people I know last night. Eric is quite possibly one of the funniest people I know, he's an all around phenomenal guy. On Monday he leaves for Canada, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Zanzibar, so this was our final rah-rah before he leaves. It was a good time.
We spent a good time of our time talking about the ultimate human quest and how God fits into that. Lately, I've come to the realization the ultimate quest that you and mutually strive for is a quest for significance. Deep beneath the charade you and I wear everyday in order to survive this calloused world we're in, lies a sharp pang for recognition and acceptance. This struggle is so vivid that many times you and I are running. We waste a lot of time striving for what the world dictates to us are the benchmarks of success because we think that if we attain those things, they'll be our fast track to acceptance by family, friends and the like. In the end this quest becomes a obsession to forces us to turn our backs on the two places that we're supposed to find that acceptance and love we so deeply desire; ourselves and God's story.
I happen not to think that this quest for significance and belonging is a bad thing. I think it's a God planted thirst in us. You and I are designed to be a part of something that is much bigger than the confines of the selfish horizons of our lives; we're made to be a part of God's story. Dan Taylor, one of my biggest inspirations, contemplates shalom as "the result of what happens when you and I find and abide by the roles God's scripted out for us." I think it was Shakespeare who talked about the world as "a stage and all we like players go about the business of sticking to our part." To me this quest for significance is at it's core not about self, but rather about fitting oneselve into the reality of what God is doing in this world. Not a bad thing at all.
Where I know I've gone wrong many times (and I think a lot of people also stray), is when it comes to setting and discovering milestones or benchmarks in this quest. Too many times, I've been so repudiated with grossness of my frailness that I've sought justification for God's love for me through doing stuff like being the everything person in my home church before I came to college. I've been guilty many times of thinking that if I do enough good things to outweigh all the bad things I do, that might tip the balance in my favor and qualify me for God's love.
Even worse, I've also thought (with the help of some of my family and friends) that if I get enough education, a good job, a family, a house, a car, cool clothes, speak the right language etc., people will recognize and appreciate my significance. So I 've wasted a lot of time running towards those fake ideals. Like an aborted pregnancy, each time I thought I had found it, I've been frustrated by the stillbirth of more dissatisfaction. That longing is still there, unfulfilled and even more profound.
Remember I still don't think the quest is in itself a bad thing.
I think our best path to finding that satisfaction and that acceptence we want so badly begins with an acceptance of self. Who we are is critical to fulfilling the purpose of our existance here. It's not a mistake that we're made with skills, passions and idioscyncrasies that distinguish us from the next person. We should relish in our uniqueness. Once we do that, it'll free us and enable us to reconcile who we are with what God is doing in and around us, and consequently, with how we fit into that. Once we accept ourselves we stop "doing" and start "being."
Eric calls that "discovering God as our portion." That doesn't have the same resonance that a health and wealth gospel would attach to that.
It was a great conversation.
We spent a good time of our time talking about the ultimate human quest and how God fits into that. Lately, I've come to the realization the ultimate quest that you and mutually strive for is a quest for significance. Deep beneath the charade you and I wear everyday in order to survive this calloused world we're in, lies a sharp pang for recognition and acceptance. This struggle is so vivid that many times you and I are running. We waste a lot of time striving for what the world dictates to us are the benchmarks of success because we think that if we attain those things, they'll be our fast track to acceptance by family, friends and the like. In the end this quest becomes a obsession to forces us to turn our backs on the two places that we're supposed to find that acceptance and love we so deeply desire; ourselves and God's story.
I happen not to think that this quest for significance and belonging is a bad thing. I think it's a God planted thirst in us. You and I are designed to be a part of something that is much bigger than the confines of the selfish horizons of our lives; we're made to be a part of God's story. Dan Taylor, one of my biggest inspirations, contemplates shalom as "the result of what happens when you and I find and abide by the roles God's scripted out for us." I think it was Shakespeare who talked about the world as "a stage and all we like players go about the business of sticking to our part." To me this quest for significance is at it's core not about self, but rather about fitting oneselve into the reality of what God is doing in this world. Not a bad thing at all.
Where I know I've gone wrong many times (and I think a lot of people also stray), is when it comes to setting and discovering milestones or benchmarks in this quest. Too many times, I've been so repudiated with grossness of my frailness that I've sought justification for God's love for me through doing stuff like being the everything person in my home church before I came to college. I've been guilty many times of thinking that if I do enough good things to outweigh all the bad things I do, that might tip the balance in my favor and qualify me for God's love.
Even worse, I've also thought (with the help of some of my family and friends) that if I get enough education, a good job, a family, a house, a car, cool clothes, speak the right language etc., people will recognize and appreciate my significance. So I 've wasted a lot of time running towards those fake ideals. Like an aborted pregnancy, each time I thought I had found it, I've been frustrated by the stillbirth of more dissatisfaction. That longing is still there, unfulfilled and even more profound.
Remember I still don't think the quest is in itself a bad thing.
I think our best path to finding that satisfaction and that acceptence we want so badly begins with an acceptance of self. Who we are is critical to fulfilling the purpose of our existance here. It's not a mistake that we're made with skills, passions and idioscyncrasies that distinguish us from the next person. We should relish in our uniqueness. Once we do that, it'll free us and enable us to reconcile who we are with what God is doing in and around us, and consequently, with how we fit into that. Once we accept ourselves we stop "doing" and start "being."
Eric calls that "discovering God as our portion." That doesn't have the same resonance that a health and wealth gospel would attach to that.
It was a great conversation.
posted by Kundai at 9:17 AM
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