Meditation ~ Jesus as the Means to Relational Living

I've been pondering the "Canticle of Canticles," in light of the traditional interpretation (love between God and His people).

I'm beginning to see that unless I understand my undertakings and desires as finding their fulfillment in Jesus, nothing but existential loneliness can set in. The reason is because only a Christ-centered worldview orients all things towards a fulfilling, definite relationship, verses the self.

For example....

Let's say one pursues as an ultimate end, "do what makes you happy." There's nothing wrong with being happy, but the problem here is defining ultimate happiness as how I in my individuality feel, apart from communion with others. Sure, I could pursue a relationship because it makes me happy. However, the relationship would be a mere means to an end. I would be pursuing that person just so that they can give me an emotional high. They wouldn't have value in and of themselves. Thus, I would remain stuck on my existential island, only capable of enjoying relationships based on how they make me feel.

Or, "fulfill your potential." How this can lead to loneliness is more obvious. I would spend my life trying to climb that mountain of success, (artistic, business, political, religious), only to find that it's lonely at the top.

My own quest to know God has been time consuming and costly. It hasn't always made me "happy" in the typically sense of the word. However, there is a deep drive to be united with God, to know Him, for His own sake. I find that I'm willing to put happiness on hold for a time, in order to know God first. Knowing God--restoring a relationship--is what matters.

My deepest sorrows have come from feeling alienated, from experiencing damaged relationships.

What emerges is an awareness that my souls deepest desire is to be meaningfully connected to God and neighbor, with happiness a second to that, yet hinging on it in the ultimate sense. It is a desire to, in a fundamental way, love and be loved in return.

It might appear that just "getting social" and philanthropic would be the answer. However, we all know that just being with other people doesn't solve our loneliness. It's possible to very social and feel lonely in one's relationships. People are so vastly imperfect.

This is where we need Jesus.

We need to understand that there is someone who can and will, and wants to, fulfill our deepest relational needs. We also need the realistic expectations that the Biblical narrative brings. Human beings are meant to play a role in helping us to experience and understand our definitive relationship with Jesus in Heaven. Our spouses, family, friends, children, acquaintances, coworkers, collectively, make concrete for us the various facets of love (agape, eros, storge, philia, etc.) Neither are people mere means to ends. We will love other people in Heaven, too. It's just that people can never "put it all together" and "be all" to us relationally, the way Jesus can.

When I understand music as a means to knowing and loving Jesus, I can be thankful and appreciative of my abilities. I can appreciate how my music education has helped me to contemplate and value truth, goodness, and beauty. However, when I understand music in terms of "do what makes you happy" or "fulfill your potential," I experience only frustration. Music doesn't always make me happy (it's hard). I wouldn't say I've "fulfilled my potential" (no Top 40 hit yet). Yet, has music taught me to sacrifice for something I love? Has it taught me discipline? Has it cultivated joy and desire? Insofar as it has done those things, it has helped me to learn how to live relationally, and that's all that matters in the ultimate sense.

We need an orientation that gets us focusing on relationships: most importantly with God, and from that, with others.

We must walk away from slogans for life that sound good, but leave us isolated and turned in on ourselves:

1) happiness for it's own sake, apart from meaningful communion with others

and

2) individual fulfillment for its own sake.

Note, "for its own sake."

What is the orientation that rightly puts it all together? For the sake of the Lord. To know and love the Lord, and commune deeply with Him, and the whole Body of Christ.