There has always been a theme running through American culture: girls go for bad boys. These bad boys wear black, ride motorcycles, do the whole anti-society thing, have a lot of angst, get the girls to fall for them, and then leave. They are wanderers. When they get to close, too emotional, to vulnerable, they up and leave. They move on. Some stay, I’ll give them that, and they live happily every after. But most leave. Or before they find that girl they stay with, they have already left a trail of broken hearts behind them.
In American culture, wandering is sexy. It’s attractive. It’s mysterious. It smells like freedom to a lot of people. Freedom from stuffy social norms and commitment. It spells spontaneity, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants life choices. It’s what everyone wants.
But is wandering really sexy? Is it really something we should want?
As I said in my previous post, I am a wanderer. This question hits home. This is a question I have to struggle with. I may come to an answer or I may not, but either way I will struggle with it. I will struggle because wandering sounds so good to me. It sounds like freedom. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the devil wants me to think.
I don’t think wandering for wandering’s sake is right. I don’t think we should wander because we’re bored. I don’t think we are islands that can do whatever we please and not affect others. God has called us to live in a church, a community of believers. A community that demands service and accountability. That’s scary to me. My human nature says, “that’s too hard,” and wants to give up. To leave. To run and hide. I hide because I am broken. I hide because I am selfish. I hide because I am scared of vulnerability. To wander for its own sake would fulfill all these things.
I believe God calls some people to go out into the world and serve him. God called Paul to do that in the New Testament. I believe God has called me to go out. However, I am not to wander in the world, seeking out the coolest thing to do or see or take a picture of. I am to move my life out of this country and serve God in a different country within that church body. Right now, I am preparing for that by traveling as much as I can (good thing I am a Global Studies major) in preparation for a completely different lifestyle than the one I lead now in the affluent and comfortable U.S.. That is why I am “wandering” now. However, I have a shadow self, another part of my love of travel and new cultures and new people that could easily re-direct my focus from serving God to serving myself and my insecurities.
Wandering is sexy in American culture, but Christians are called to do the opposite of that. They are called to commit to a church, to give their lives for it. Yet, in that obedience, God will set us free from sin, from self-indulgence and self-centeredness. There is freedom is submission to God. Does that make sense to the world? Absolutely not. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”
Wandering may be sexy, but we have a higher calling. A calling to give ourselves for the church and for the world, to represent Christ to the rest of the world, and to bring them to an understanding of God’s love for them. It is a commitment. A life-long commitment. A hard commitment. Christians will be persecuted and will suffer with the gospel. Hebrews 11:32-38 says,
“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak,Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.”
We are assured of persecution in the Bible, but we have a hope and a reason to live. A reason to love. A reason to stop wandering and to start serving. As Mumford & Sons says,
“But hold me fast, Hold me fast
‘Cause I’m a hopeless wanderer
And hold me fast, Hold me fast
‘Cause I’m a hopeless wanderer
I will learn, I will learn to love the skies I’m under”
I am a wanderer for Christ. I know His heart, I am still learning it day-by-day, but I know the beat of it. I am willing to leave my established life and go to the ends of the earth for Him. Is it kinda sexy and exciting? Yeah, of course. But I know what awaits behind that facade of adventure: suffering for the gospel of Christ. Traveling just to stay a couple days and leave is not experiencing life. It’s a shadow of reality, it’s just a slice of how life really is. We have not really lived if we wander.
This may be confusing, but I want to be clear: Wandering for wandering’s sake (to experience, to travel, to explore, to be adventurous) is shallow. Wandering around the world, seeking God’s will and calling is the opposite of that. That is why I can say I am a wanderer…I am a wanderer for Christ. I reject the cultural desire for meaningless wandering, I choose to faithfully serve the church as a faithful wanderer for Christ. I choose to give up my life to go where God has called me. To learn the hard lessons. I choose to wander, and it won’t be sexy.
Lysh out!
wanderlysh 