How far can we get on good intentions? According to a recent survey conducted among a diverse group of men and women, 30 percent of those who make New Year's resolutions admit not keeping them into February. Just one in five continues their resolution for six months or more. Apparently, we don't get very far.
Albert Einstein once said, "I want to know [God's] thoughts; the rest are details." His words declare a lofty feat, possibly in earnestness, possibly in arrogance. But it is a quote that can set us thinking.
I wonder if humanity's search for God is often most largely about humanity--what we want, what we need, what we feel we deserve, what we think God must be like. And we are often quite proud of ourselves for searching, for having an inquisitive personality, an openness to spirituality. But if the one we search for is the sovereign, omnipresent God, isn't this line of thought somewhat ridiculous? Have we ever been out of his reach or his sight? I often wonder how much of our searching is more or less insignificant details. While we are disagreeing about the kind of God we want to find or the ways we prefer to find Him, we have already been found. In our quest for God, even as we credit ourselves for exploring, how much is more accurately God's searching for us? There is little talk of God's search for humanity, but isn't He the reason there is talk of God at all?
The Scriptures tell us that from the very beginning of time God has pursued the human heart, calling out, "Where are you?" when we have strayed, "What do you want?" as we stand grumbling before Him, and "Whom are you looking for?" even as we search. In fact, "Where are you?" is the first question God asks of man and woman in Scripture. (See Genesis 3:9.) Sensing God's presence after eating what was forbidden, Adam and Eve hid among the trees. And God asked Adam, "Where are you?"
Rest assured, if the God we seek and hide from is the one whose breath brought dust to life, it was not for God's sake that He posed the question. You and I needed to be asked.
One of my favorite scenes in all of literature is in The Last Battle of C.S. Lewis's Narnian tales. Though many had never seen him, faith in Aslan was common in Narnia, whereas, men of other lands followed Tash. But growing tired of contradicting claims and hypocritical followers, the dwarfs decide to declare defiantly, "The dwarfs are for the dwarfs," rejecting belief in anything but themselves, refusing to answer to anyone, and renouncing everything they cannot see. Later, the Last Battle is over. Aslan has won, and the scene has been transformed from a dirty stable into the beautiful Narnia. Yet curiously, the dwarfs sit hunched as if they are still in the stable. When asked to stand up and admire the sun and the sky, scenes greener and truer than anyone had ever seen, a dwarf replies, "How in the name of all humbug can I see what ain't there?"(1)
I have often wondered if it was this Narnian scene Lewis had in mind when he said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because, by it, I see everything else."(2)
The intensity of God's search for humanity and his desire for us to see clearly are illumined in the questions He puts before us. "Where are you?" asks the Lord. "Who do you say that I am?" asks Christ. His questions penetrate all of our hiding spots and pierce the self-deception that blinds us from seeing God and ourselves in the light of truth. "Do you love me?" he asks. "Do you want to be made well?" To cut ourselves off from God's probing words is to blind ourselves from life itself.
If today, you stood up wherever you are in your place in life, where are you? Are you hiding? Running? Are you blinded to the truth because it is not the truth you want to see? Or maybe the words of the hymnist ring true for your life:
Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wand'ring from the fold of God; He to rescue me from danger, Brought me to his precious blood.(3)
There is a point in God's search where the next move depends on your answer. His questions elicit a response. Where are you?
Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle. (Collier Books: New York, 1956), 144. (2) C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory. (Sans Francisco: Harper, 1980), 140. (3) John Wyeth, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) "A Slice of Infinity" is aimed at reaching into the culture with words of challenge, words of truth, and words of hope. If you know of others who would enjoy receiving "A Slice of Infinity" in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up on our website at
Click Here This government site offers access to historic documents. View the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
===============
'Thought & Humor' - often polemical but never tasteless/unrefined/uncouth/ribald.
===============
Please note: If you see a UNC student or liberal reading 'Thought & Humor', please explain to them which is thought & which is humor. They usually get it backwards.......
"Not being on the air, that's not important. But I'd like to be in the newsroom helping set the agenda."
Retired CBS Anchorman Walter Cronkite
{Dear Walter, Fair news knows no agenda - Howdy}
===============
God designed humans to want to believe in something. That's the image of God that is in us. But as G. K. Chesterton famously put it, when we reject the God of the Bible, we don't believe in nothing; we believe in everything -- including Little Green Men.
Protestant reformer. Martin Luther was the first and greatest figure in the 16th-century Reformation. A composer of commentaries on Scripture, theology, and ecclesiastical abuses, a hymnologist, and a preacher, from his own time to the present he has been a symbol of Protestantism. In 1505, he made a decision that changed the course of his life radically: he decided to enter the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. This decision shaped the rest of his life, and his search for a merciful God and His Will culminated in the development of the Reformation of the Church. Luther's negative personal experiences with the ecclesiastical means of grace resulted in not only increasing criticism of the deplorable state of affairs within the church but above all to a fundamental reconsideration of medieval theology.
The most important and influential event since Biblical times to the present occurred when Luther stood before the Pope (the most powerful man in the world at that time - when he spoke, kings trembled) and stated after being told to recant his teachings/views, "Here I stand - I can do no other." This event were more consequential and changed the course of history more than the invention of the printing press, the discovery/use of the A-Bomb, or either World War (as important as these events were)!!! - Howdy