“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien
The thing I had come to find in my own life is that my “aimless wandering” of my twenties led me to massive revelation in my 30’s because I am the type of person that needs to find the answer myself. I was so bad at mathematics not because I didn’t “get it” but because I wanted a way to come to the answer myself. I specifically remember many a time I was marked down because I had come to the correct answer differently than was kosher.
For me, the “wrong path” led me to the correct answer.
I had to go down all the wrong paths to lead me home.
But, all roads lead to Rome.
If we are honest enough, we find that we never wanted “our truth” we wanted THE TRUTH.
There is objective and universal Truth, we cannot lie to ourselves about this. If we step back and question why nothing we are doing here and now fulfils us, then we start asking the right questions that lead us home to the Church.
The hole we are trying to fill with all our wanderings is filled only in one place.
No matter the starting place or religion of a person, if he asks the correct question, the door is being knocked on.
And, it has always been about the right question.
As G.K. Chesterton put it - “I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.”
Keep wandering.
Because when you come home, we will all be waiting for you.