Is wanderlust a blessing or
a curse? I don’t understand the lack of
hunger to explore. It extends beyond
that; music and the arts; museums and live theatre. Why am I so hungry to plunge into these when
others have no interest? I envy their
contentedness—at a shallow level. I find
I am most content when I have calendared the next seminar; get-away or road
trip! Sometimes I wonder if the problem
is me and not them.
Am I looking to be
filled? Does adventure equal ego? Is it all my flesh looking to the next new
thing? Is it topographical ADD? Certainly there is some synchronicity of
personality involved. It maybe that this
tangible want for more is just one side of the coin.
Here’s the flip. It’s that same wiring (good or bad) that
keeps me from being content with the status quo. Here’s a short list of things that the
wanderlust fallout impacts: my hunger for God (“Like the deer pants for the
water so my soul pants after You…”), my performance at work (good service
should mean pushing for better) and how I date my wife (wanderlust drives me to
creative dating.) Those are some
positives.
So what purpose then? At the core is the desire for stillness,
peace and worship. Perhaps this is best
typified through the words of John Erastus Lester, a reporter and visitor to
Yosemite in 1873;
“To attempt to describe the grandeur of this scene (from Inspiration Point) would be folly; to tell of the feelings of awe, of humility, or reverence, which are here aroused, is all that can be done. He who tries to believe there is no God is here at once converted in the twinkling of an eye; and his feelings of reverence and veneration, blended with love and beauty force him to a worship at once pure and creedless.”
The partial answer---and
perhaps the answer in full---is that the quest for beauty is the quest to taste
of Heaven. In the end it remains C.S.
Lewis that said it best;
"These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols,breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
