BLOG 1/4/15. THE “MOTHERLESS CHILD” SYNDROME
I was having supper recently at a favorite restaurant in the village of Oak Grove when I encountered a fascinating younger guy, who is a very gifted journalist by profession. He related how he had experienced a very moving moment recently when he and his wife were visiting a famous monastery in Spain, and decided to observe evening prayers by the monks. His apparent lament was that, as he put it, he had abandoned the dogmatic Christian teachings of his youth, and had settled into an agnostic view in the intervening years—but somehow listening to those monks chant the liturgy stirred up in him something of a longing for a more fulfilling spirituality than was met by his agnostic and intellectual explanation for anything transcendent. There was a void there that he didn’t quite understand. The encounter and discussion were very revealing of what is true for so many.
Driving home after my supper and that encounter, out of archives of my memory came the words of the plaintive old negro spiritual: “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child a long way from home,” with its haunting sense of some incompleteness in one’s life, something absent, something that is not as it should be—an ‘aching void’ that all of the distractions of their culture cannot fill. So many of these remarkably gifted younger adults, with whom I have conversations frequently, astound me with their access to so much information, and such abilities in their work, and yet they seem to escape thinking about ultimate things by engaging in endless sports, entertainment, and socializing with other motherless children.
When the entertainment has come to an end, and the lights are out, and it is quiet, there is still that aching void, those lingering questions: What does my life mean? Does anyone know who I am, and care? Is there something beyond this human life? Is there some center around which life should be formed? Is there some creative source that I have not tapped into? Is there an ultimate authority to which should respond, or some guiding line I should be aware of? Is there a final goal to life? How would I know? Where would I find out?
Justice? Spirituality? Relationships? Things of beauty? Why do I have these desires?
It is no secret to the readers of these Blogs that I am an incorrigible follower of the life and teachings of Jesus, and this is because as I reflect on his life and teachings, I find that he speaks over and over to these very questions and longings, and for his design for the real persons whom he came to rescue from their darkness. He came to adopt again all of those “motherless children” into the embrace of their Creator. So many are so lonely of heart, such “motherless children.” I long for them.
And just, peradventure, you would like to pursue this, I might recommend: Simply Jesus, by N. T. Wright, or Briarpatch Gospel, by Shayne Wheeler. They might be good starting places. What you need to know is that Jesus came to set us free, not to beat-up on us with dogmatic religion. He came as the expression of the re-creative and reconciling and infinite love of God for folk such as we—empty, uncertain, screwed-up. Just look at who he hung-out with!
No wonder that in spite of all of the ‘crazies’ who have called themselves his followers, and all of the embarrassing episodes that have taken place under his name, … the great host of those who have been set free and recreated through their relationship to him continues to grow irresistibly to this day in the most unlikely scenes on earth.
It’s worth looking into. Peace! And may the 2015 be a good year for you.
