A Settler or Sojourner be

Of all the challenges a Christian will face in life, what he perceives to be God’s silence may be for him the most troublesome. God’s silence, at times, particularly those times when life challenges our strained desire to hear Him, is the most difficult to abide. Such a silence calls us to listen, to hear the Spirit’s whisperings, to still our lives and grow deeper in our faith.

Yet, how do we respond but with an all-too-present willingness to fill the void with anything and everything. When the filling occurs, our heart reveals a bent to continue within the safety of doing what we have always done. This, when the very silence of God we experience is asking us to move from where we are to where God is preparing us to go. For many, such an aspiration becomes too fearful. If we are attentive to God’s presence, such silence calls us to movement, to grow toward what God has prepared.

The problem, it seems, is we desire too often and too much a tangibility, a concreteness in place of what God offers. This replacement, this “taking matters into our own hand,” is the means by which we avoid God’s calling. And when God comes, what is our response but, “Not now, I’m too busy.” There is in the encounter a tension between what we believe to be constriction in following God’s call against what we think is “holding in the hand” the surety of what we will for ourself, a seed deep within that needs constant atonement of that which we do not want to face.

What every Christian must come to know, what must become his reality, is that God is always present, and in those times we think Him silent, He speaks. And how does He speak but in every relation, every friendship and family member, every acquaintance, and yes, even those who cause us consternation. For in every relation, God is there also, speaking if we only listen. To love one’s neighbor, such an aspirational effort to which every Christian is called, this wide breach between the command and the doing, seems unreachable. So, we give up.

Hear this parable. There were two men who lived in a certain village. The one had lived there all his life. He knew every villager, his occupation, his hobbies, and his family. He also knew every street and landmark by which he could navigate the town. He was most settled and knew of no reason to venture outside of his village. So, a settler he was.

In the same village, there lived a young man, known to all as the son of the baker and his wife. All believed he would become the same. But the young man was not satisfied with life in the village. He wished to travel to another land about which he had only heard, and thus he could not be satisfied with life in the village. Thus, a sojourner he became.

The meaning is this: Every Christian is called to leave where he is and come into the presence of the Almighty.