The West

The West.

The west has always held a certain magic for me. It is my favorite of cardinal directions (not something which many people consider enough to have a 'favorite' one of). But, I've always loved west. In my life, it has come to symbolize all that I really love in the world.

When I was younger and my family would go on vacations, we always went west. It was the direction of freedom, of time off, of exploration...of the unknown. It quickly came to embody the direction of adventure. Any new frontier, decision, or experience came to become a mental trip into the west. That was how I thought of life...one long trip west.

School, civilization, crazy relatives (well, most of them, anyway), pollution...all that was east. East also came to represent heading back to those things after a time of fun. East came to mean the finish. Contrary to all religions, where east means the rising sun and new beginnings, for me it meant the fun was over and drudgery was looming again.

Whenever I'm driving anywhere, and I have to take a highway east, it hurts me. Perhaps this is sad, and I need to just get over the whole thing...but, east still has the residual feeling of bad. West is the place of the horizon, unbroken by the blemishes of 'Western civilization', a concept I find myself becoming less and less fond of. It is the place of wide open expanses, freedom.

One of my theology professors once said that, in Hebrew, the word salvation has its linguistic roots in the Hebrew word for 'wide open spaces'. Far too often, we as a church make salvation into a thing of oppression. Live as we do, or else it is to the fiery place of damnation for you. Do everything right, or you will soon quickly find demons eating your flesh, on an eternal time scale. Take all these burdens, and go...live your life. Your life that was already difficult and full of burdens a'plenty, live it now with these extra demands on your time and your person.

No. I fundamentally disagree. I have found in my own experience (and as a good Wesleyan, that is the final testing ground of decisions) that only when my faith went from being a plethora of rules did it become my faith. It became not a thing handed to me by eloquent men standing behind pulpits, but something blossoming from deep within my soul. No longer was it an external thing, but it became something that filled my being.

Salvation is not simply a form of eternal fire insurance. It is not a list of rules you should follow, in order to sing for eternity with a bunch of winged folks playing harps. It is a life of plenty, of abundance, of freedom and joy. It is the Kingdom of Heaven bursting forth inside of us, so explosively that you have no choice but to share it, to let others experience it as powerfully as you have.

It is the west. Salvation is an unbroken horizon, devoid of the corruptions we place on the landscape in the name of 'advancement'. It is the creation, given to us as stewards by the Creator Himself. It is eternity, here and now, but not just here and now...it is started now, but will continue on forever. To the horizon and beyond. Salvation is a journey into the west, the land of the setting sun, with the full knowledge of the sun rising again tomorrow. It is a journey into night, with the hope and eager joy accompanying our anticipation of the morning.

The west is also a place of quiet. No longer will we be plastered by constant waves of noise and distraction. It is the place where you can hear the thunder of silence, feel it, taste it. For only in the deafening silence can we hear what we must truly hear...truth. For words always fall short in description, never able to fully grasp the fullness of truth. We only can see through a glass darkly, after all.

But, into that horrifically frightening and yet all too invigorating silence, that often walked and yet still pristine salvation...into that expanse, we are called to go. Called not just by the God in whose image we are sculpted, but by the yearnings of our souls. Our hunger for the eternal calls us to great things, to great distances. It is a never-ending journey, as all worthy quests truly are.

This post has slowly gotten larger and larger, originally intended to discuss my impending trip to Australia, which I'll leave a majority of for a future time. I find myself filled with fear as I think about my trip deeper into this west, this salvation. My new venture into the unknown is terrifying. The trajectory of my life will be decided within the next month or two. Stepping into this new adventure, this wide open expanse...that much freedom, that much open space is unsettling. Silence is overwhelming. But, that is the nature of the journey. Push through it. The fear passes. The unsettled worry fades away. Just keep going. Push on. Hold your course.

The course I take? I find celestial navigation to be the answer.

Second star to the right, and straight on til morning.