The Humble Home

Traveling southbound along the curved expressway in between lush, almost mountainous, green hills, the feeling of anticipation becomes arresting. Despite all attempts to catch a premature glimpse, its breathtaking sight evades the eye. Closer and closer the car coasts downhill around each bend toward cavernous Waldo with nary a hint of what is about to be seen. Suddenly, upon emergence of the dimly-lit tunnel, like the monster in a well-paced monster movie, that orange sentinel of man's industrial and technological revolution appears with guardian-like authority and presence: The Golden Gate Bridge.                 
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Photo credit: ggb113b.wordpress.com/

This paragraph illustrates what it has been like to live in San Francisco. I have found this landscape to be littered with miles of space and memories of time that cause one to feel minute and weak compared to objects of greater size and forces of intimidating power, and finite in the grander scheme of history. There is the aforementioned Golden Gate Bridge, one of the most photographed icons in the world, and its lesser known companion, the nearly five-mile-long Bay Bridge spanning from SF to Oakland. There is Sutro Tower, a steel, claw-like telecommunication tower reaching into the air at over 1800 feet providing the Bay Area with most of its radio and television air waves. The downtown skyline itself is a sight to behold: over 410 high-rises, 44 of which are over four-hundred feet tall, with the colossal Transamerica Pyramid and 555 California Street buildings as focal points at 853 and 779 feet respectively. Forces of creation are ever present as well such as the roaring Pacific Ocean beating down surfers at Ocean Beach, thick, ominous clouds of fog rolling into the city during the summer, and, most menacingly, the always-imminent threat of a large-scale rupture along the San Andreas Fault.

The historical context one lives in here is also quite prominent. Although in existence prior to 1849, that year's world-famous Gold Rush saw one of the most remarkable surges in population growth ever in U.S. history. There are controversial places like Alcatraz Island, the infamous prison, and Angel Island, which housed thousands of Chinese immigrants for decades due to the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act. The illustrious San Francisco Giants carry serious baseball clout having been in existence since 1883 as the New York Giants (originally the "Gothams") until their relocation to the city in 1958. Legendary writers such as the SF Chronicle columnist Herb Caen and the prolific poet/novelist Jack Kerouac have eminently influenced the culture, with environmentalists like John Muir, William Hammond Hall, and John McClaren functioning as a conscious of conservationism with the establishments of Muir Woods and Golden Gate Park in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, there is again a new cultural and societal shift on the horizon in the Silicon Valley "tech boom", with companies like Twitter, Yelp, and Pinterest setting up shop in the City by the Bay. 

There is an adjective that I think amply describes these spatial and temporal elements of San Francisco: Majestic. It is indeed a city of majesty, with lofty ideas, an imposing history, and grandiose scenery. 

However, the greater reality of this place, at a closer look, reveals that it is nonetheless made up of hurting people, fragmented ideologies, aimless wanderers, all contentedly distracted with the numerous forms of escapism that the city provides. San Francisco often feels like a giant adult playground, with an environment meant to inspire humility more often provoking humanistic pride in the flourishing of urban achievement. Indeed, there is much to be celebrated about a city like San Francisco, but to laud humanistic pride as the end-all pleasure of this majestic city is actually the cause of the emptiness found in the hearts of its residents; they are suffering from a displaced majesty. 

It is ironic that humanity has the tendency to build itself into a corner of humility. I believe it is innate for us to want to feel small. G.K. Chesterton, a popular British author writing 105 years ago, stated, "Towers that vanish upwards above the loneliest star are the creations of humility. For towers are not tall unless we look up at them; and giants are not giants unless they are larger than we. All this gigantesque imagination, which is, perhaps, the mightiest of the pleasures of man, is at the bottom entirely humble." So, as beings created to live in humility, who simultaneously shun true transcendent majesty in an all-powerful, all-knowing God, design and construct something tangible to worship in our smallness or an ideal greater than ourselves to ascend toward. It is not unlike the Tower of Babel reaching to the heavens in Genesis, or the plethora of statues and monuments worshiped by Israel and other nations all throughout the Old Testament. We demand a majestic transcendence as a human race, and we will get it, one way or another. 

And so true majestic worship in the city remains disjointed. In the search for this desire, humanity repeats the familiar cycle that Paul asserts in Romans 1:25, "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." This, indeed, should come as no surprise to a world torn by evil and lost identities. So, as those living a "xenolithic" life in this city along with countless others all over the world, our hope and prayer remains rooted in the astounding grace, mercy, and love of Jesus, the triumphant King of the Cross, to reset dislocated hearts back into their properly humble place, that many may declare, 

For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised;
     he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
     but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
     strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
                                                         (Psalm 96:4-6)

May this city of man relinquish its lost identity and find itself redeemed by love in the City of God.