Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Your Turn: A Time for Leaving, a Time for Staying

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

Don’t get me wrong: This line of poetry from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is beautiful and looks good on coffee mugs.

But it makes me wonder, Are Christians supposed to be adventurers and wanderers, catching the next train like a hobo in the night, always moving, always waiting for that elusive feeling that we’ve arrived and never quite reaching it?

I think the answer is both yes and no.

Hebrews 11 tells us that God is the God of the wanderers. And that is a beautiful thought for all the 20-somethings in transition — the ones who don’t quite know what’s next or who they want to become or which place is home.

But right in the middle of the stories of tent-dwellers and roaming prophets, there is this promise: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland . . . Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13-16).

We don’t wander because wandering is the best option. We wander because there is something permanent out there, and we’re not quite there yet.

The tabernacle had its day — a pop-up place of worship, never in the same place twice, never quite settled. The restlessness of David to build a place for God to dwell among His people and the joyous praise of Solomon at the dedication of the long-awaited temple show that need for permanence.

But the temple was destroyed. The land was abandoned. The people were sent into exile far away from home, and the covenant echoed in the silence between the testaments like a broken dream. The promise of secure, unchanging home for God’s people had failed.

And then Jesus came, and with Him came the hope that maybe God saw and knew and cared after all. Maybe He always had.

Writing to those same disillusioned people, the author of Hebrews emphasizes permanence over and over again: Jesus is a priest from a line that will not die out. God does not — cannot — lie. “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).

I think we need this reminder again, for our generation.

We know how to climb ladders and go on adventures and set goals and change the world. People are always telling us that we were built for those very things. The generation on fire, like Katniss in a blaze of revolutionary passion, fighting for social change and connection and progress. We know how to move.

But, oh, can someone teach us how to stay?

How to stay invested in friendships when the other person is going through a hard time or is too needy or doesn’t seem to be giving us very much in return.

How to live and love within a local church instead of depending on teaching siphoned off various podcasts and seminars.

How to stay committed to marriages that are no longer working out the way we’d planned.

How to show up to a ministry even when we aren’t in the mood, how to read the Bible even when we get nothing out of it, how to decide that a place will be home because, at least for now, we are here, and there must be a reason for that. There must be.

Yes, there’s a place for semesters abroad, impulsive decisions, experiencing other churches and worship styles, the ending of harmful relationships. There is a time for leaving.

But there is also a time for staying, and I think we forget that sometimes. We fear commitment and check our phones for affirmation and worship a tumbleweed God who only shows up when our emotions do. Our generation lives with packed-up suitcases, ready to move on at any time.

And that, to me, seems very sad.

We are not a generation of hobbits, the cozy and complacent, who need a pack of dwarves to drag them out beyond the Shire. We need to find the Shire that we’re supposedly fighting for.

Do you feel it, too? The pull to be busy for God, to achieve and network and constantly keep in motion? Despite what our culture — even our Christian culture — tells us, it’s not the only way to live.

Why don’t you stay a little while?

 Amy Green lives in Minneapolis, MN, where she plays strategy board games, hangs out with jr. highers, and writes about life, faith, and Pharisees at themondayheretic.wordpress.com.

If you would like to contribute a post to the Boundless blog’s “Your Turn” Friday feature, see “Writers Wanted” for more details.

 

Share This Post:

About the Author

Related Content