Are you searching?
What gives you the motivation to get up each and every morning and put one foot in front of another? What moves us from the shadows into the light?
Over the years of ministry I have realized that everyone is searching in one way or another. Some are searching for deeper connections, some are searching for love, some are searching for meaning and purpose, some are searching for inspiration and a plethora of other things I could list. Yet, what most do not realize is their searching is misplaced.
I have known many who try to fill the empty hole within themselves by searching in the wrong place. They have searched through the next party, or the bottle of pills. They have searched through websites that distract from the reality of life. They search at the mall, or the golf course, or the bar. Searching in the wrong place can fill the void temporarily, only to be empty once again.
Jesus knew that searching was part of our human nature. He knew the human soul and the longings of the heart. When he was preaching on the hillside in Galilee, he told those who had gathered their search needed only be focused on God.
“What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
Matthew 6:30-34 MSG
I like how Eugene H. Peterson translated the verse I memorized as a child… “Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all shall be added unto you.”
We are to seek God-reality, God-Initiative, and God-provisions, giving our entire attention to what God is doing right now.
Now if you are like me, even though I am a follower of Jesus Christ, there have been times in my life when my search has taken me down the wrong path. It is in those moments I realize I have misplaced my focus. I have let the worries of the world and the “next big thing” take over my search. In these moments I am not partnering with God in the reality God desires. In these moments I am not participating in what God is doing “right now.”
Maybe a question for my daily journey should be… “what is God doing right now?”
If that question guides my journey, the shadows will diminish and the light will shine upon the path of my searching soul, finding a deeper relationship with my loving God and Savior.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long