I just finished a fascinating audiobook: Malcolm Gladwell interviewing Paul Simon about his songwriting processes in Miracle and Wonder.
After nearly seven unprecedented decades of creativity—he had his first hit at fifteen with “Hey, Schoolgirl”—Simon at 83 is still original and productive, releasing an album a little over a year ago called “Seven Psalms”—an acoustic experiment in seven movements lasting thirty-three minutes as one piece.
In 1968, I remember hearing Simon and Garfunkel’s “America”, a haunting masterpiece with, oddly, no rhyming scheme at all, and yet one never notices. Each word simply makes perfect contextual sense as a narrative of two people making their way from Saginaw to New York City. It’s their melodic conversation that cleverly captures an existential angst.
The final verse pulls a heartstring when he turns to his girlfriend asleep on a bus, and says:
“Kathy, I'm lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping. “I'm empty and aching and I don't know why.” Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike; they've all come to look for America…
Of course he’s not lost geographically; there’s an identified lonely gnawing and knowing in his soul. Have we not all felt that at some point? Everyone is looking for something.
A few weeks ago I read George Sayer’s beautiful and meticulous book, Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis. Sayer implies a self-identified restlessness, even a sense of “lostness” in Lewis prior to his conversion. But:
“When he became a practicing Christian, he found that his life had a new center and what he hoped would be a new stability.” JACK: A LIFE OF C.S. LEWIS p.226
A year after his surrender to Jesus, he wrote his first book about Christianity: A Pilgrim’s Regress. It was almost as if he found his true self, his sense of purposeful living.
“Jack’s conversion to Christianity made him a different person. His search for belief was over; he now had a strong platform in which to stand. . . He devoted himself to developing and strengthening his belief, and almost from the year of his conversion, he wanted to become an evangelist for the Christian faith.” ibid. p.231
My friend Jim Henderson suggested that instead of talking about people who are “far from God,” let’s prefer the phrase “the people Jesus misses most.” I like that. How can this not be a primary reason for Jesus-followers on this planet?—connecting others with a Father who is looking for them…to offer them a “new center”.
Isn’t this our quest as leaders? Helping people find meaning goes beyond the soteriological themes of heaven and hell. When people find a new center, the existential “empty and aching” cries for value and significance are replaced by solidity, fullness, and purpose.
Leaders, is this your mission?
Dave Workman | The Elemental Group
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