Hope

The Reservation Book of Zion

I’ve been to my fair share of hotels. Although I don’t qualify as a road warrior, my work calls me to different cities on a somewhat regular basis and I like to travel. Funnily, I rarely seem to go to the same place twice, which means I get to experience a variety of different hotel environments. Each one has its own character and its own sense of purpose.

In all my travels there has only been one time when I’ve had a problem with my reservation. It was at a conference and the hotel clerk shared that the person who had previously occupied my room was still there and so there were no room available. Apparently, they weren’t allowed to tell the first occupier that the room was no longer theirs, instead I had to move to a hotel down the street. Just as in the classic Seinfeld episode, it made me question the power of the reservation. After all, if the reservation was quickly overturned by another guest’s extended visit, it didn’t do me a whole lot of good.

All of this was brought to mind recently when my pastor preached on Hebrews 12:18-24. The passage contrasts the Israelites experience on Mount Sinai with the place of our future God encounter – Mount Zion. As my pastor articulated unlike Mount Sinai, Mount Zion is a place where we can interact with God. It’s a place of community – a city is being built there. It’s a place of celebration – reconciliation is complete. And the wonderful thing about Zion is that God has His very own reservation book. All who believed have a confirmed booking, “their names are written in heaven” (vs. 23). And the best part is, we aren’t registered as visitors, spectators who are passing through. We become Zion’s citizens with all the rights and privileges therein.

Both Seinfeld and I may know what its like to have a worthless reservation. I’m glad that my final reservation is secured.

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Relationships

Avoiding Loneliness

In “Lucky You”, Drew Barrymore plays a girl new to the Vegas scene who falls for the bad-boy, compulsive gambler. The movie wasn’t great, and Drew Barrymore’s character was one of the least believable, but despite these flaws, she did have one noteworthy saying. As the two lovebirds stare at the city’s light, she utters “I think everyone is just trying to avoid being lonely.” The setting was contrived, but the words full of veracity. Most people are just trying to avoid being lonely. Its why people obsess over divergent things – drugs, relationships, church, cars, etc. As Tim McGraw sings “We’re all looking for meaning in our lives, we follow the road that leads us to drugs or Jesus.”

What I think has been lost is that there is a difference between being lonely and being alone. Loneliness concerns having an unfulfilled need – a sense of abandonment and lack of validation. Being alone simply means having solitude. For many, the fact that they are alone brings on feeling of loneliness because they consider their isolation as a form of destitution. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way. Being alone can simply mean that there is no one else around. Maybe not a preferable situation, but an instructive one. Because in our singularity we can learn a lot about who we are and who we are not. We come to discover what life is like without our masks and we feel those things that we are scared to acknowledge in community. Being alone shouldn’t be avoided, it should be celebrated because its when we are most vulnerable with ourselves, and with God.

I know why people try to avoid being lonely. God made us for community and when we are deprived of that our soul suffers. But being in community doesn’t mean never being alone. It means having people to be alone with. And its trusting that a time of solitude will make the community all the sweeter.

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