One of the deepest longings in a man is a restless and wandering heart. In Genesis, we are told that this is due to our disobedience, self-centeredness and pride that Cain represents. And to wander is a devastating punishment.
The ancient story of Ulysses shows another man prone to wander once life became too routine:
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
In the song there is a plea that God would bind our wandering heart to Him…that He would be a stabilizing force in our lives as we tend wander and the leave the very things that we love.
For men, we daily struggle against wandering hearts. Whether its actively pursuing an affair, or passively observing pornography. Whether its an actively amounting piles of debt, or passively gambling away our savings. We long for something different, and are inevitably left exhausted, empty, and chasing the next adventure from “whence we will never return.”
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ took the very punishment Cain described for us so we no longer have to wander like Ulysses out into the black unknown alone.
1) hidden from your presence: When Christ cries out on the cross “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,” He is feeling the hiddenness of God
2) restless wanderer on the earth: Christ says that while “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His Head” and so He became the restless wanderer.
Instead of wandering in search of fulfillment, Christ invites us to follow Him onto His well-trodden path.
Wes Barry 