The more I seek you, the more I find you …

One morning when I was a little boy, I noticed my mom in her chair near the window. She sat quietly, staring into empty space. She was longing for something … desiring, hungering. I asked her what she was thinking about. I will never forget her answer.

“I can’t wait for Jesus to come back. Paul, imagine the moment we see his face.” All these years later, I still remember those words. God was speaking into the soul of a little child through his mother’s voice, opening his heart to the journey of desire, beckoning him to take his first steps onto the path of faith.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Faith entails more than believing in God’s existence. Faith is earnestly seeking after God, hungering for God, craving him with all our souls.

God promises that in him we will find life. And yet our quest to become fully alive can get so tangled up in our desire for … all this … STUFF.  More, more, MORE! The list of desires is endless. Camping in the high Sierra. Chasing wild deer through the untamed forest. Fly fishing in Montana.  Getting a more comfortable sofa, amassing more shoes, collecting more baseball cards, eating at the Cheesecake Factory. Taking that drive across the country in an RV. 

The human heart longs to be known, adored, married, held, kissed, caressed, respected, admired, complemented, included, acknowledged, cherished and to be told that we have the most beautiful eyes in the world.  Some seek for life with the other person in their bed when they wake up tomorrow morning. Is life even related to whether there is someone else in bed?  Is the pearl of great price retiring young or becoming independently wealthy.  Does it have anything to do with living an adventure or sinking your toes into the sands of a Mexican beach? 

None of these are bad, of course. It’s just that when they slurp up our desires, sucking us into the abyss of cravings, suffocating our souls, they end up robbing us of the ONE TRUE PLACE our souls are designed to seek.

Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God … and all these things will be added to you.”  In the end, I will fully KNOW. I will be fully awake in the realization that what God created me for has nothing to do with attaining authority, reputation, wealth or acquiring more stuff.  It is unrelated to having my own way.  It’s totally unrelated to how my wife behaves, or what my children say, feel, do or can’t do. 

Desire.

God created it, so it must have some point. We live with it. The question, really, is not whether we should have desires, but the object of our desire. Each of the following statements speak to human desire. Excavate, explore and enjoy.

But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.

Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live.”

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Deut 4:29, Psa 105:4, Psa 119:10, Isa 51:1, Isa 55:6, Jer 29:13, Amos 5:4, Matt 6:33, Matt 7:7, Acts 17:27