Monday, June 26, 2006
emptiness
"I believe that each of us carries around inside himself, a certain emptines - a sense that something is missing, a restlessness, the deep feeling that somehow all is not right inside his skin. Psychologists sometimes call it anxiety, theologians sometimes call it estrangement, but whatever you call it, I doubt that there are many who do not recognize the experience itself, especially no one of our age, which has been variously termed the age of anxiety, the lost generation, the beat generation, the lonely crowd. Part of the inner world of everyone is this sense of emptiness, unease, incompleteness, and I believe that this in itself is a word from God, that this is the sound that God's voice makes in a world that has explained him away. In such a world, I suspect that maybe God speaks to us most clearly through his silence, his absence, so that we know him best through our missing him. "
Frederick Buechner ~ The Magnificent Defeat pg. 48
I'm not sure if this hole or emptiness is meant to be filled. I'm not certain that we're meant to feel full or complete here on this earth. The longing and desire for more might be good for us.
I know that some pain will never leave. I know that healing doesn't always happen. I know that there will be more hurt and heartache. I know that I will keep on being disappointed.
More on this later...
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1 comment:
Ah, yes, a great quote from my favorite Buechner book. Thanks for sharing that.
C.S. Lewis had a similar idea, one that he termed Sehnsucht (I think it's German for "Holy Longing"). This resonates deeply with me, because in my life it has often been the felt need for God that draws me to Him rather than His presence. I don't feel Him near, but I need Him near. And I seem to find Him in silence more and more. It makes me think of that Old Testament story about God being in a whisper... I like that analogy.
I want to learn to be quiet enough to hear the whisper in my daily life.
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