Looking For God

Looking For God

If you seek him, he will be found by you. 1 Chronicles 28:9b NIV

I know a person that has been regularly going to church for about sixty years. When asked about Jesus her prompt reply is that, "God and I are okay, but I have a problem with the son." In her opinion, the New Testament writers cannot be trusted. It isn't possible for Jesus to have been... well, Jesus. Apparently, the Christ in scripture is just too hard to take. He makes too many wild claims of himself to be considered trustworthy.

Through my friend, I now see that one can know and do religious things without ever having encountered Christ. Even more so, in the absence of a real encounter, most people will play dress up on Christ to make him more pliable; that is to dial him down to something more accommodating. It seems to me that in order to find Christ, one has to have their own Damascus Road experience. Like Paul, we need to be illuminated by Christ. We need him to heal our spiritual ears so we can hear him speak to us. And we need him to injure us in some way to make us more amenable to godly truth.

I had hoped that seeking God would be less troublesome, sort of like a stroll through the tulips. But I have observed in my own walk that I am always in need of illumination, always in need of his words and unfortunately, always in need of godly induced injuries that ultimately push me along as I seek Him out. I need the flowers and the thorns to help me as I rummage around, looking for God.

My search hasn’t been what I expected. But I believe the end result will be the realization that while I have searched high and low for God, He has always held me safely in His hands.