YOU WILL NEVER FIND
HIM LIKE THAT
You will seek me and
find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13 NIV) If my
people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my
face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will
forgive their sin and will heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV)
I sat
at the dinner table and enjoyed the conversation. Beside me was a USAF jet mechanic who worked
on F16’s. He was a first-time visitor at
church and my daughter invited him over to eat with her family and us. We talked of his home, California, and his
family, Chinese, first-generation immigrants.
He was just glad to escape downtown, urban Los Angeles. He joined the Air Force and had traveled to
Japan, Africa, … and was now stationed in Montgomery. He had come to church, based on a Google-map
search, and wanted to make new friends.
As we
enjoyed the Thai food (what a coincidence?!) that Sarah had planned for dinner,
our guest began to reminisce about how his grandmother set a very similar table
with lettuce, sauces, vegetables, ground pork …
It really was a very good meal!
The conversation turned to church and what Matt was looking for in a
church. He said that he wanted Bible
study, to answer questions. The teens
had directed the church service that morning and talked of how God has the
answers to all our questions, even if we might not know the answers, yet. Wow!
The
conversation turned to questions about the nature of God, the problem of pain
and suffering, and other “surface issues”?
My son-in-law quipped that he was glad that I was there to be the “answer
man”! We went to the book of Job, and I
pointed out our inadequacies to know all the answers. Matt was surprisingly familiar with the
apologetic/theodicy nature of the book?!
Then he quipped that God seemed “bi-polar” when you look at Him in the
NT and OT … (I was thinking about
Marcion) and I responded with an academic answer.
Then, I
went a little deeper with a question.
Matt had mentioned his parents being Buddhists, and I asked him what
attracted him to Christianity, with his family’s spiritual background. Very quickly he retorted that he did not like
all the rules in Buddhism that made no sense to him. He wanted to be free to party with his
friends and play. The conversation soon
took a detour into banality boulevard.
But, not before I added – Job put his hand over his mouth and just shut
up; and, “… the secret things belong to
God…” (Deut.29:29) is one of the favorite verses of old Rupert.
We soon
finished dinner, and my wife and I packed up to return home. We kissed the grandkids good-bye, and hugged
our daughter and snl, David. As we drove
west, Melanie asked me what was troubling me.
I was thinking about Matt. I was
perplexed about his answers and motives.
I was concerned that I had failed to connect with him. Later that night, as I lay sleepless, it
began to dawn on me that the problem was not head, but heart. He was not looking for Jesus; he was just
running from Buddha. As long as we make
God an argument, an academic conclusion, a synthesis of propositions, … we will
never find Him. We are not looking for
Him; we are hiding from Him, wanting to run naked through the garden.
"Then they will
call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.Proverbs 1:28
I love those who love
me, and those who seek me find me. Proverbs
8:17
For whoever wants to
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. Matthew 16:25
"I am
unworthy--how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. Job 40:4
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