Searching

Searching for answers is part of the human condition. We all have different questions, but want the right answer. Is that the right approach?

I had a random, yet inspiring conversation after church this week. The conversation was mostly about things we read and listen to for our spiritual well-being. We shared about making God bigger and not wanting God to fit in a box. We shared struggles with current dogma. It got me thinking about how I am always searching.

I am always searching for answers. I want the right answers. I want to understand. I want to be understood. I want to be seen and known. This friend then said something I so needed to hear. It struck hard. I have heard it before, but clearly needed to hear again. He said quoting a book, “God knows what you are thinking, so stop talking and listen.”

I am really good at talking. I talk to God all the time, non-stop in fact. I often think He tires of listening to me. I talk and I search, so stopping to listen is so hard for me, and so necessary. It is when I am listening that I find comfort. It is when I am listening that I find what I am searching for in that moment. It’s when I’m listening that I realize God knows my every need.

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. (Psalm 139:1 NIV).

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23 NIV).

I seek to search and know God. I want the right answers. Yet, the entire time God is right with me showing me the intricacies of His care. He shows me the details of my life that He is providing care. I seek to know, to quantify, to put science around what God will and won’t do. God simply enters in to my world and brings love and compassion.

How often do we all do this? We want to put parameters around what is possible and what is right. I’m coming to understand that I’m searching in the wrong places, asking the wrong questions.  God knows my anxious thoughts and meets me exactly where I am at.

Are you searching? Are you finding the answers you are looking for? How is God entering your current circumstances and showing you His presence? Share your experience here and breathe life and bring hope to others.

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