Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.” 
– John Fowles, The Magus 

OUR PILGRIMAGE: A NEW RACE

John Fowles author
Author John Fowles
book The Magus

It poured rain the day I left. But I was filled with excitement, a strange exuberant sense of taking wing. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew what I needed. I needed a new land, a new race, a new language; and although I couldn’t have put it into words then, I needed a new mystery. 

scene from the film The Magus
From the 1986 film, The Magus, starring Anthony Quinn, Michael Caine and Candice Bergen

These are the words of a young man named Nicholas in The Magus, a novel by John Fowles. Nicholas is starting out on what is to be a totally new life, and this is the expression of his feeling. 

His words have become a kind of theme song for my spiritual pilgrimage. It burrowed its way into my soul not long ago when I had to make a vocational decision. 

It happens. As Christians, we are not permanent residents. We are pilgrims. Paul made that clear to the Galations. They were arguing about doctrine and Christian practice. Paul spared no word: “Circumcision is nothing; uncircumcision is nothing; the only thing that counts is a new creation” (Ga.6:15 NEB). 

Let’s claim it and live it more intentionally this new year.