Not all who wander are lost ... unless they are going in circles

The last few days, I have been taking advantage of the milder weather to put in some new fence and clear out an old fencerow so I can put in some more. Perhaps the pain put me in the right mood to hear what the Preacher has to say.

All the streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. The streams are flowing to the place, and they will flow there again. All things are wearisome; man is unable to speak. The eye is not satisfied by seeing or the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:7-9

We like the idea of progress. There must be something in the human psyche that craves moving forward, getting bigger and better. “New and Improved!” invariably gets our attention.

The Preacher tells us that we do not move forward but in a never-ending circle. He says that nothing is ever really new and very little is ever improved. Having more is not the same as having better, or even different. In the view of Ecclesiastes, life is cyclical, and each day is a wearisome round like the one that went before it, and like the one to follow it. Nothing is ever really accomplished in this world, for the best efforts of man will wear down, wear away, crumble and fall to the relentless, cynical work of time and decay.

Progress, as the world system uses the word, is meaningless. It simply moves us further around the circumference of the circle. It neither moves the center, nor moves us toward the center. In The Two Towers, Sam and Frodo find themselves in the mountains trying to get to the Black Gate of Mordor. Between the terrain and the overcast sky, it is difficult for the hobbits to get their bearings. “This looks strangely familiar,” Sam says.

Frodo replies, “We’ve been here before.”

My father, brother and I were out coyote hunting with our hounds one cold, snowy day. We left the truck up on a road and walked in a mile or so to where the dogs were running. After the race broke up, we caught the hounds and started back to the truck. The ground was covered with about four inches of snow, the going was a little tough and it seemed to be taking a long time to get to the road.

We came into a little opening and saw a stretch of greatly disturbed snow. “Looks like a herd of deer must have crossed,” my brother said.

My dad was in front and looked down, “And the sneaky bastards have took to wearin’ rubber boots like ours.”

When we are wandering in circles, we need to re-orient. We need something we can go by, a landmark to head toward. Sometimes it helps to reach a higher elevation, to get above the ground clutter that is confusing us. Our hearts are yearning for progress, but it is a “pilgrim’s progress” – not living in the same circle until we decay and die. We seek not change, but transformation, to become whole, rising higher to see the true goal of life. Christ breaks out of the circle.

For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, that He might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once – and after this, judgment – so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who have been waiting for Him. – Hebrews 9:24-28

The Bible tells us that the annual, endless cycle of sacrifices in the Tabernacle and the Temple served only to remind us of our sin. No one was really released from the human condition, from the circle of ages that never moved us forward.

Jesus said, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to Me.” Moses elevated the bronze serpent on a pole so that everyone could see it, and those who looked upon it lived. God raised Christ up on the Cross, He gave us a landmark, a point of orientation to lead us out of the wilderness and get us on the path to home.