On the Road

Recently I shared with a friend about what my life was like directly after high school. About the time my friends were gearing up for college, I was packing my car with a suitcase and a tent, a couple of John Steinbeck novels, and some Bruce Springsteen mix tapes. I was getting ready to hit the road.

I remember the feelings of wanderlust and freedom. In my early 20s, I would find myself hitchhiking across the country. I had the hunger, ambition and fevered urgency that is most acutely felt during youth. I felt like a feral animal with my paw caught in a steel trap, ready to gnaw my limb off in order to escape my hometown.

I remember these years as a time of feeling lost, lonely and strange. But even during the loneliest times, I found love and support. I had a few serendipitous encounters with certain people who changed my life forever. When I survey my late teens and early 20’s, there were those crucial moments when the right adult showed up at exactly the right time in my life. Those times when you find yourself on the precipice of making some bad choices that you can’t easily undo, and someone was there, thankfully, to help you see a different way. I’m so grateful for these people.

But it made me think of the importance of mentoring young people. Don’t underestimate your ability to make a difference, or the example you set. It’s not so much about giving the kids helpful advice, but letting them know there is someone who loves them and cares about their wellbeing.

Who can you get in touch with today to let them know you are thinking about them, and that you love them? It might make all the difference in the world.

Tom Joad, Woody Guthrie, And Ramblin’ Through The Reign Of Christ

 Then Pilate entered the headquarters^* again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’³⁴Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’³⁵Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’³⁶Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’³⁷Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’³⁸Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’ John 18:33-37

In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck tells a story of the Great Depression through the lives of the Joad family. They travel from their dustbowl farm in Oklahoma to California in search of a better life. Towards the end of the novel Tom Joad, the main character, has a conversation with his Ma. After all the suffering he witnessed and lived, he has a sort of spiritual experience. He tells his Ma that he is leaving her but says,

“I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where- wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat. I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ – I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready.”

Tom begins to sense that he is a piece of something much bigger that transcends his individual existence. He sees himself a small part in a much bigger conflict and fight for justice as he identifies himself with the plight of the working poor. This is so much so that he sees himself there in those places of darkness, hope and struggle.

The power of this novel and the character of Tom Joad has haunted the imagination of American artists- from John Ford’s movie based on the novel, to Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads, to Bruce Springsteen’s album The Ghost of Tom Joad.

The final scene of Tom Joad touches on the nature of the reign of Christ and his kingdom. The Word made flesh made his dwelling among us. And he still rambles around among us.  Like the Joad character, he’s all around in the dark. He’s among hungry people and prisoners. He’s among suffering and persecution. He makes his home with the least of these.

Jesus lives as king among us, but his reign is so different from the way the rulers of this world exercise power. And his kingdom transcends the limits of time and space. It’s not of this world, but it is in the world. It is among us in our neighborhoods and streets, homes and churches. The kingdom of Christ is bigger and more generous and life-giving than we deserve or even expect.

And the reign of his kingdom has come into our lives. It is here with us today, a hospitable kingdom, broad and roomy. It breaks into our lives in baptism. It comes to us in the Eucharist. The reign of Jesus comes to us in our fellowship together, in our hope and struggle for a better world. And the reign of Jesus comes in the mercy of knowing that he loves us for who and what we are, for his own sake.

Jesus lives as king among us, but his kingship and reign are so strange in its mercy and grace. It is here in our presence. May we carry it with us into our homes and careers and passions, and allow Christ to reign in those everyday places of our lives.