{"id":895,"date":"2022-06-20T20:05:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T20:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=895"},"modified":"2022-06-22T10:22:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T10:22:49","slug":"searching-for-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=895","title":{"rendered":"Searching for…something"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019re searching for something else, <\/p>

searching for something more, <\/p>

we\u2019re searching for something else, <\/p>

what it is we\u2019re not really sure, <\/p>

but certainly something more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Every now and again, a song hits a nerve. It seems to capture in a concise way the mood of a movement, or a group, or a generation. The song \u201cIgendwas<\/a>\u201d by Yvonne Catterfeld hits a sweet spot in describing this cultural moment (at least for my generation). Yes, the title is funny; that\u2019s because the song is in German. Here is a general-purpose English translation<\/a> that is good enough to see what it is about (it\u2019s a pretty song, even if you don\u2019t understand German).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above I have translated the chorus into poetic English. The chorus captures clearly the indecisive yearning which runs throughout the song. A yearning for something or someone that rises beyond the trivial, the temporary, and the cliches of modern life. Catterfeld muses on how we are able to explain the position of the earth, make monuments, take pictures, yet it all fades away. Our pictures don\u2019t give us memory; our monuments don\u2019t make us last; we can explain the rotation of the earth but in our pursuit of explaining ourselves we just keep trashing the world around us. It turns out, doing things and making stuff doesn\u2019t assuage the yearning in our hearts. There must be something more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second verse (sung by another German artist, Bengio), the song moves into reflections of endless indeterminacy. He sings of our longing to find someone who is real, solid, lasting, and who shows us who we are. But even if we found someone who might be able to do that, we can\u2019t stay and learn because staying and learning means we could miss out on something else happening somewhere else. There is always a something else and always a somewhere else and the endless chasing for something leaves us endlessly spinning, finding nothing. Always more and different with the hope that the novel will turn out not just to be novel but categorically different. That in the next novel thing we will actually find the thing which explains ourselves to us. We are dedicated to getting somewhere, finding something, achieving something, but no one knows what that is and no one has the answer to guide us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A song of our hearts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This song is a song of the human heart. We know, each one of us, that there is something more than what we have. That we were intended for greater than, deeper than, higher than. But in each ascent to the heavens, we find that the beeswax which holds our wings together can\u2019t lift us high enough, and we plunge again into the seas below. As the Christian band The Gray Havens<\/em> puts it in their song \u201cHigh Enough<\/a>:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

'Cause we fly, to the mountain top \nWe climb, to the skies above \nWe sail, to the stars and up \nBut we can't get high, high enough<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
All around us\u2014and, if we are honest, far too often inside of us\u2014is a world full of people looking to find something. Something else. Something that lasts. Something that shows we are right. Something that shows we have reached as high as there is to reach. Something that shows we have become God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no something we will ever find, though. Not by just following our longings to the next shiny thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no someone we will ever find, though. Not by trying out someone while endlessly looking for the next someone who might be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As much as our hearts were made for delight\u2014and that pursuit of delight stands behind the pursuit of \u201csomething\u201d\u2014they were also made for devotion. Devotion is the breeding ground for delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lesser and greater delights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Many delights in life can be found through devotion to a craft. Rejecting the endless pursuit of something else and rooting down here (rather than looking for another \u201cthere\u201d to go to) opens up the possibility of delight. Devotion to a place, a people, a project, provides the time and space it takes for delight to grow in our hearts. These lesser delights of life are beautiful and worthy to be savored. We were made for these delights. Yet they are lesser. While worthy, even devotion to these lesser delights will never pull us outside of the endless pursuit of something else. Our hearts are made for something more profound than we can achieve by ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The greater delight is what we are really seeking for in each throw-away delight, each new relationship, each new experience. But no experience resum\u00e9 of lesser delights ever adds up to the greater delight. The greater delight is not, in an ultimate sense, something\u2014someone really\u2014to be found by us in our pursuit. The Greater Delight demands instead that he finds us. Until we are worn out on the endless pursuit of some greater lesser delight that might bring contentment, the Greater Delight is unexperienceable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A master of our hearts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The song Irgendwas<\/em> colors in the contours of modern life, but can\u2019t make sense of why the picture is always blurry and never resolves. There is a need, in the end, to give up on the pursuit. Not to give up on the pursuit of delight, but to give up believing (hoping against hope) that enough lesser delights will ever equal the Greater Delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The great lie of today is that we can both be master of self and enjoy the delight for which we were made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What our hearts really need, really crave for, is a Master who can guide us into delight. Indeed, who is Greater Delight. As St. Augustine said long ago:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it resets in you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Photo by Alexas_Fotos<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re searching for something else, searching for something more, we\u2019re searching for something else, what it is we\u2019re not really sure, but certainly something more. Every now and again, a song hits a nerve. It seems to capture in a concise way the mood of a movement, or a group, or a generation. The song … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Searching for…something”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[63,110],"yoast_head":"\nSearching for...something - First Baptist Church of Manistique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are searching for something. Our hearts cry for a delight that lasts and gives meaning, but ever eludes. 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