UMC20190309 Seek and ye shall find

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UMC20190309 - Seek and ye shall find¶

Two friends are arguing about which political party to vote for. In order to prove her friend wrong, the first friend types into Google, "reasons NOT to vote for political party B". She shows her friend the top 10 reasons with a smirk on her face; proving, in her mind, that her party was better. Frustrated, the second friend counters by himself typing into Google, "Reasons why political party A is bad". He triumphantly shows his friend an article on how political party A is ruining the country. This continues back and forth until they both decide that politics is not a good topic of discussion at a children's birthday party.

Something I have witnessed in my own life and of those closest to me, is that we operate as if we were living in a wordsearch puzzle. When we are looking for one word, there is little chance that we will find other words. We often find the word we are looking for. This happens in our everyday, we find what we look for. Just like the friends arguing about why the “other” party is bad, we do the same thing. If we are looking for reasons why our job is terrible, we will find them. If we are looking for reasons why our spouse is incredible we will find them. If we are looking for reasons why we can’t make amends, or go to church, or help a friend, we will find them. We tend to find what we are looking for.

In the life of Jesus we see that the Pharisees sought out reasons why they could persecute, reasons why they could exclude and reasons why they were more righteous than others. They found reasons for all of these. Jesus on the other hand looked for reasons to include, to heal and to liberate.

I have always found these words powerful and they may be applicable here: “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened”.

What are you looking for?