Where Do You Look?

As seen in the  "The Heartbeat" and published in the Hot Springs Village Voice

Ever looked for your glasses only to find them on top of your head? It sounds so cliché, but it happens. People get so sensitized to the feeling of having them up there they don’t realize their presence. Or maybe you hunt for your car keys only to find them in your pocket or purse – exactly where they were supposed to be! We can get extremely frustrated looking for things, only to find them in obvious places.

How do we look for God? Do we find Him in church on Sunday morning, and then expect to leave Him there until next Sunday? This sounds like a very ludicrous question, but unsurprisingly it happens. Some people have had the wonderful experience of visiting the grand cathedrals in Europe. My nephew is one such person. He sent back picture after picture of the beautiful structures. Just looking at them one might think, "God must be present in this place."

When is the last time you looked outside of grandeur of the large church sanctuary, outside the cathedrals, or even outside the small, historic churches with beautiful stained glass windows that dot our country and thought, "God must be present in this place."

God is always with us, no matter where we go. And just to make it clear, God is already present where we are going, and is still in the place we just left! This thought can be comforting to some of us, and it can be concerning to others who may not know God as well as they should.

Jeremiah, one of the major prophets writes, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." When we hunt for our keys because we are running late to an appointment, we don’t look for them half-heartedly! We look for them feverishly. The same is true in the words of Jeremiah. Looking for God half-heartedly is not the way to find Him. Seek Him with your whole heart, and God says you will find Him.

It doesn’t take a lot of turning over of the couch cushions. You won’t need to remove all the papers on top of your cluttered office desk. God is waiting for you to be still, open your ears to listen, and open your heart. The Psalmist wrote, "Be still and know that I am God." Find time to be still this week. God will reveal Himself to you in many wonderful ways. He’s as close as the glasses on top of your head, and we don’t even realize it!

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