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| Hoosier United Methodist News |
December 2001 |
The lost
It's probably the most forlorn word in our language -- lost.
Surely no one among us hasn't experienced what it is to feel lost, cut off, adrift -- our grip on the familiar, the beloved having slipped away from us for some reason. It's a gut-level, soul-sick feeling.
Ever prominent in our thoughts and public discourse these days are those thousands who were "lost" in the terrorist bombings Sept. 11. This past month we honored the memories of countless others, soldiers lost in war. We read daily of the world's unending flood of refugees and orphaned children, left by AIDS or war homeless, unmoored … lost.
Such seemingly limitless numbers are as difficult to grasp as the number of stars in the universe, so remote are they from our personal life experiences. We can be concerned, we can help as we may, but we cannot really feel them.
What we do feel are those small-by-comparison yet shattering losses that we each experience one at a time: The loss of a sister, a husband, a job, a friendship, a dream.
Such intimate absences take away with them irreplaceable pieces of ourselves, leaving us with longings as palpable as hunger or thirst -- leaving us still moving along our life's journey, but feeling lost.
Luke wrote of the Magi who traveled far into unknown territory toward an unknown destination. But they traveled relentlessly and with confidence. They had a star to follow.
Two millennia later, here we are: proud citizens of America, "the greatest, wealthiest country in the world."
Yet the national psyche is profoundly troubled; depression and suicides are up. To varying degrees I think we all feel insecure, off-balance. Lost.
So, where do we go from this dark place in time? How do we become whole and hopeful again. How can we really feel at home again?
The star is still there. If we open our eyes to see it, it will lead us.
Keep reading … and have a true Christmas.
