going forth into homelessness

Strange as it sounds, I’ve grown in relationship with Jesus through reading and studying Buddhist literature. (I’m even writing a book on the topic. Consider this the first, of what no doubt will be countless, shameless plugs). During their ordination process, Buddhist monks utter the phrase, “Going forth into homelessness.” What a profound statement to declare upon dedicating your life to seeking GOD and serving others. And how true.

Although we are born into the world, it is not our home. Despite how some may disguise and acquire, we are mere ragamuffins bouncing around from place to place, surfing the erratic waves of this life. While our bodies dwell in brick and mortar dwellings, our spirit cries, yearns for more. For home…

Among the many spiritual and literary mentors (and dead friends) I possess is C.S. Lewis. He observed that, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” The Provine paraphrase for this is we are homeless, and the sooner we acknowledge this, we can begin on the path home. To discover our real home.

While I’ve learned much of these thoughts from the accepted and accumulated wisdom of Buddhists and Christian apologists like Lewis, nothing taught be these lessons clearer than my homeless friends wandering the streets and loitering under bridges. Some are there out of necessity; others out of personal choice. But all of them, with their tattered clothing, downtrodden dispositions, and desperate desire for more in life, realize a few things:

Real life is more than what you see.

Realize that you have to rely on Someone for help.

Refuse to call this world home.

That we are all, whether we realize it or not, homeless in a sense, longing for home.

And the good news, the Gospel, is that we have such a home. We only need to explore the Way to encounter the Truth and experience the Life. All of which can be summarized simply as…home.