Modern man is increasingly mobile. But where's the intimacy we all crave? Resurrection Band frontman and pastor GLENN KAISER explores modern mobility.

Glenn Kaiser

If there is one thing true about many people in the West today, it would have to be that we are increasingly mobile yet disconnected. It seems we are working harder than ever to be fulfilled, to find meaning and purpose in an increasingly detached society.

This seems a bit odd when one considers how much creativity and technical ingenuity has been expressed in things like the World Wide Web, email, cell-phones, faxes, overnight mail, teleconferencing and the like. There are so many possibilities online, offline and in other methods to form "community" or "family" or just link up so that one doesn't just slog through life alone.

Bicycles, motorbikes, cars, buses, planes, trains and boats offer mobility. We are not without means of basic transport if we can get the money together somehow. In many cases, a friend, or bank, etc helps out with a loan.
We move from one school to another, one job to another, one city or even country to another. The West is increasingly migratory. We are "free" of the "bondage" of marriage, the divorce rates have sky-rocketed, and we are more open about our choices or perhaps chains and the ability to exercise them, demand and even legally penalize those who would try to convince us otherwise.

So... why are so many people committing suicide, experiencing LESS fulfilment, feeling more emotionally drained and even lonelier?

Power, opportunity, choice and even happiness doesn't happen when one assumes godhood. Neither are any of us all that much "safer" than any one else.

BECAUSE we have the ability to run, leave, get out of most anything that we dislike or don't consider "optimum" in terms of personal fulfilment, we have opened ourselves to a society that whines about continual exploitation while exploiting ("hit and run") all the while.

Stability, family, marriage, community and the contentment that must be found in rather than apart from them is a matter of spiritual linking with the Absolute God, the absolute truth of his word in the faith, love and trust founded in Jesus Christ. Things like the will of God (HIS thinking on an issue), integrity and fidelity will have to be discovered and re-examined in the light of Christ... or civilization - and the individuals in it - are doomed to the very same darkness and despair, communications, mobility or not!

We may be mobile, but what sort of communion and intimacy has it provided us? The missing element in the eternal link is surrendered relationship to Jesus.

This is one key reason there has been a revival of worship in the churches. People desire intimacy, and the most intimacy we can expect in a flawed world with imperfect people is with the perfect God himself! We must learn to go to him daily. In him our need for intimacy can be met fully. In an increasingly mobile world the omnipresent God meets with all who call on his name!

As always, the Lord has the last word: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Mt 11:28-30)