Somewhere deep inside each of us we know that we exist as someone originally created for a
specific eternal destiny in a never-ending story. Consider with me a moment where this yearning becomes manifest like one gazing across the ocean longing for something that lies just beyondthe horizon. This moment of gazing
out across this sea of divine mystery into a possible eternal destiny,
everything lying behind us becomes a distant memory. Within our innermost being
we feel a sense of urgency that fills our soul with a hopeful yearning for
something beyond what this fallen world can offer us. This hopeful yearning
stretches out into the unknown, trying to grasp and retain the belief in what
cannot be seen. As this yearning intensifies, a faint possibility of eternal
happiness rises on the horizon. It beckons us with a promise that if we explore
this ocean of mystery and entrust our future to our conviction in the actuality
of this possibility, then we will find that which we have been seeking all our
life without knowing what it was we sought.
Over time, this search for a greater good or higher end to live for
available to us in this world has become suppressed under the weight of
“reality,” because the realities of adulthood tend to stifle this childish hope
of a “castle in the clouds”. Such a hope, subsequently, becomes set aside, only
to be entertained as a hobby or through a work of fiction or all-together demeaned
in the world of grownups. In consequence, at the close of each day of unrest
has forced us to come to terms with the reality that this was a naïve hope for
that which cannot be found on the shores of this world. Even still, at this
present moment as we gaze out into the transcendent unknown, our gaze
re-ignites the spark of the once-burning candle of eternal hope within our
soul. We have experienced similar re-awakenings of this candle’s flame when we
have read, listened to, or watched a story play out that reminds us of this
inner longing for the possibility of some higher destiny beyond what has become
the mundane everydayness of human life here in this world. But in contrast to
these illusory possibilities inspired by the human imagination, at this moment
a storyline appears on the horizon that presents these dreams as indeed a
possible actuality. This moment gives way to a crossroads of faith that
accompanies this resurrection of hope in finding lasting fulfillment for the
inner yearning of our soul somewhere beyond the immediate horizons of the life
of transience we now live.
While our gaze pierces the immediate horizon of our present life, hope
in a blessed eternal destiny is kindled by the fires of the imagination.
Although, our imagination comes along side our gaze to infuse it with the
desire to act. This impulse comes to us in such a way that it feels as though
some true substantiality lies at the root of what inspires us to believe that
an actual possibility of eternal good actually lies available to us. This
desire to act is greater than the inner promptings after fictional narratives
became portrayed before our physical eye or our mind’s eye, since they clearly
come to us as a momentary escape from carrying out our roles in real life. The
bent towards taking action comes to us now, when it did not in relation to
these works of fiction, because a part of us truly believes that what now calls
out to us to real not imaginative action has always been calling out to us.
Somehow we know that this same call that brings us now to an existential halt
before a crossroads of destiny has rung out from a mysterious deep place ever
since the awakening of our self-consciousness within our innermost being.
Therefore, we believe it has not come from or has been placed in us from the
outside, but rather lies innately imprinted upon our soul with a void of
eternity that nothing in this world of transience can fill.
Scripture explains this human situation of inherently desiring the
possibility of an eternal good, as eternity lying pre-written on the human
heart (Eccl 3:11). For this reason nothing within the immediate horizons of
this world of transient goods[1]
permanently satisfies us human beings just as the book of Ecclesiastes makes
quite clear. In contrast, the animals inhabiting this world alongside us seem
to find what we humans can never find: true existential rest in spite of
transience. Somewhere deep within us, we know that we were created to inhabit
eternity. Accompanying the desire to act before this crossroads of faith, we
inwardly feel a prompting that beckons us to begin our journey of exploring the
spiritual ocean of our Creator’s self-disclosure. It beckons us to embrace the
rekindled hope experienced most clearly in our childhood that trusts and believes
in what cannot be seen: that out there lies all the answers to the enigma
concerning our true place in the universe. This hopeful belief inspires within
us a vision that appears before our mind’s eye that we can come into an
eternal, not a mere transient, good as our potential destiny. Such a destiny,
as we inherently know, extends beyond this present mortal life and dying world.
This hope enriches our gaze with a longing expectancy, inviting us to leave
everything behind to sail these waters of mystery until we find what we have
been seeking since we became conscious of being discontent, restless, of not
fitting in, of transient meaninglessness, of being out of place, of being
homeless.
