Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself. (Soren Kierkegaard)
Thomas Wolfe told us that we can’t go home again, since “the old forms and systems … are changing all the time.” We can’t go home, Wolfe explained, because home isn’t there anymore – at least the home that memory recalls.
But I would go further. We can’t go home again because we’ve never been home before. A place – like the place I grew up, 910 Lake Avenue, Elyria, Ohio – is not home. Home is where a person is himself, and none of us is yet himself or herself.
Once I heard a preacher say, almost regretfully, “Well, we’re all just human, aren’t we?” And I thought to myself, “No, we aren’t – not yet, anyway. But, God willing, we will be.” We call ourselves human beings, but we are really human becomings.
Christians believe that thus far in history there has only been one truly human being and he was, ironically, God. (If you object and say that Adam and Eve were truly human, I would counter that the biblical story suggests they were proto-humans, the fullness of their humanity having gone unrealized.)
When we come home it will not be to a place built with brick and mortar. Home will not be a place created through political activism. No amount of money can purchase a ticket home. We will only come home when we’ve come to ourselves, and we can only come to ourselves with the help of another.
That’s what this blog is really about. It will touch on politics and money, family and society, theology and biblical studies, but it will not roam too far from the way home – the way that is, paradoxically, a person.
I’m writing to invite you to join the new Bible Gateway Blogger Grid (BG²). If you’d like details, please email me. Thanks.
I’d enjoy seeing these thoughts in The Way Home put into a small booklet form that can be passed on to others. I enjoy reflecting on each of them. Thank you.
That’s encouraging, Diana. Others have suggested the same thing, so I’m thinking about it. Best to you!
Shayne, I so enjoy your “From the Pastor” columns in the Holland Sentinel. (Every time I read one, I think of our great conversation about the Apprentice Series a few years ago.) After I read your superb column this week I decided to look up your blog and felt immediately at home; I use the same theme for my blog. I’d love to have you check my blog out: http://www.living as apprentices.com
Blessings on your writing, Karen Bables
Hi Karen – so good to hear from you! I’ve looked at the blog before but am anxious to look again. Best to you! – Shayne
Very nice and refreshing blog. Thank you.
Thanks, Catherine, for reading and taking the time to comment.
Gratefully, Shayne
My pleasure! Thanks for your work.
Dear Shayne,
For years, I’ve been reading your “Religion” Page columns in the Holland Sentinel; to much applause BTW.
And this week’s entry on our body and soul cosmos (Why the Universe has Wiggle Room).
The wave and particle debate is huge ramifications in re Christian theology. I’m an evangelical/ecumenical retired Christian pastor.
Send more of your things on the creation/evolution discussion.
I would love to be in dialogue with you going forward. I help lead a men’s discussion group on topics like this. Thank you. I feel like I know you, having read so many of your fine columns. Well thought-out and presented. JRK
John,
Sounds like a men’s group I’d love. I have enjoyed reading laymen’s books on physics, but have not spent much time in biology, so I’m not a good resource person on the evolution/creation debate. I will look through some of my older stuff and see if I have anything that will be helpful. Paul Davies book, “The Goldilocks Enigma is a helpful overview of the history of physics and the possible conclusions regarding origins. I don’t agree with Davies, but he is fair, and I appreciate him. His first book, “The Accidental Universe” is a great resource, if you can find it.
Thanks for reading, and for your kind words. Grateful for every friend for peace.
Shayne