When I was a sophomore in high school I attended a Young Life weekend camp. I had just read the book "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut and it was seriously screwing with my mind. Hey, I was only 15, cut me some slack. I realize now it was a work of fiction but at the time it seemed "real". Goofy, I know. There were extreme circumstances that led me down this road that I won't get into right now since this is a post about reality and I like to think of all that crap as a bad dream that has now ended. So, in the book, Vonnegut comes up with a whole new "religion", Bokononism. At the time, it sounded really good to me. I gotta check that book out at the library and read it again in light of my "now reality". It would be quite interesting.
Anyway, this book led me to ask one question of the Young Life leaders in attendance that weekend. The question I asked was, "What is real?" I desperately wanted them to tell me that all the business of the world I was living in was just pesky circumstances that were there to deter me from what really was real. I wanted them to see with me the unseen. But they didn't get it. They wanted me to know that yes, the chair here is real and so is the bunkbed my sleeping bag was laying on, etc. But I wanted more, so much more. I wanted them to tell me that the only real things were the unseen; the Thing I felt guiding me to ask these questions, the One Who drew me into the sky, the sunrises, sunsets, and clouds, the inside stuff that was threatening to overtake the outside stuff, good vs. evil. Today, I have more, but it's still not enough. I still want more.
Ok, I'm sounding really wacky here. I'm not. Let me tell you how this all came rushing back into my life at this time. I was sitting in a college classroom (this doesn't happen very often!!) at a conference called "Lectureship". I had gone to a class about being called to be spiritual fathers and mothers. It intrigued me not only because of the subject matter but because I admire one of the women who was teaching the class. It was standing room only and I was standing. One of the first things she said was "What is real?" That immediately got my attention. I was whisked back to 1972. I was sitting in that rustic campground on a chair with people praying that I would know the chair was real. Wierd sensation, I must say. I know she knows what I'm talking about. She "gets it". All this has led me to the place where I am now, desperately wanting to know more about the invisible, the unseen and knowing there's a reason I'll need this "vision" of the invisible in the visible world, this one we all temporarily reside in.
Today, I believe God was using that book as a catalyst to throw me into a realm of discovery. It's taken me 35 years to embark on the journey, (I let myself get seriously waylaid) but I think I'm ready now. So, at the risk of sounding completely nuts and possibly getting myself banned from working with all impressionable children (hey! all you parents of highlanders!), I'm publishing this post in the hopes that we will stop, take a deep breath and realize that there is a whole lot more out there than meets the eye. Do we even begin to realize that all the troubles of this world, as immediate and gnawing as they seem, are just moments in time set out to oust us from where our minds and hearts should be set? Just so you know I'm not losing it, I'll back myself up with scripture.
"So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever." 2 Cor. 4:18 (New Living)
"Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting." 2Cor. 4:18 (Amplified)
"There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever." 2 Cor. 4:18 (Msg)
7 comments:
Well, hmm..Candy, in 1973 I asked those same questions..I had just gone to see the Exorcist..What was real? I was scared out of my blue jeans, you know the faded ones with an american flag sewn on to the hem..haha.
Oh man, if only we would remember, at our churches, that our youth are struggling with this and need to be heard and need to have an environment where they are free to ask these questions..or have Candy speak to the youth..
What is love? Can I see it, can I touch it? There are very few, in this world, who would deny its existence. So what a good place to start..love.
Firstly, Vonnegut rocks.
Secondly, I love this post, the search you've described, and the scriptures that so clearly relate.
But it all reminds me of a prayer uttered by Augustine. "We were made for Thee, and our hearts are restless until we find rest in Thee."
I think we were programmed to home toward home. And we spend a lifetime lying to ourselves about what is real, to quiet the in-born homing device.
God bless you for listening to it!
Bev - I'm glad you were asking the same questions. And love is a great place to start. Resurrection power keeps coming to mind for me.
Scott - Thanks for the comment and the blessings. I don't feel so nutso anymore. You win "comment of the week" in my book. And I am reading that book again. My homing device seems to be in high gear these days.
Kurt Vonegutt actually came to Abilene once.
Makes sense. It's kind of a lateral shift from Indiana to Abilene. Heck, visiting Abilene is a step up!
Hi, Candy. Thanks for reminding us all that when we were that young we had a real brain and could ask such questions.
When I was 16, my family was transferred from Kandahar to Los Angeles, and I asked that very same question. Much to my dismay, too many people were stoned to give me a viable answer. Later that year, I read Francis Schaeffer’s ‘The God Who Is There’ and asked the question again, this time to people who weren’t stoned. Still couldn’t get an answer.
Keep encouraging with your questions, and modelling that ‘have no fear!’ energy. Our youth today need a safe place to question and struggle and comprehend life and the world outside The Box!
Blessings for your passion and courage to seize the day – AND the spirit!
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