Wellbeing

Psalm 34:4–5 “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.”

Imagine you are looking for someone – let’s say it’s your long lost friend from your school days. The first step is to ask around from people who might know them and where they live, what they are doing, how you might locate them. 

Now that might satisfy your curiosity, but if you are really interested in finding that friend, you take that address that you were able to obtain, look on a map, get in the car and start driving to that town and that street address. You finally found their house and you might be satisfied with that, you might have seen them driving into the garage, and walking into the house after work. 

But if you want to complete your goal, you walk up to the front door and knock. You hear the TV on. You saw your friend come home. No one answers. You keep on knocking. Still no one. Do you go home? Do you leave? No! You keep on knocking until your friend comes to the door, and then the great reunion begins. 

It could be said that the most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God. Rowan Williams puts it this way, “Christian life is lived in relationship with God through Jesus Christ and, in common with other Christians, seeking to deepen that relationship and to follow the way that Jesus taught. Central to that relationship is knowing we can trust God.”

O Lord my God,

Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,

Where and how to find you.

You have made me and remade me,

And you have bestowed on me

All the good things I possess,

And still I do not know you.

I have not yet done that

For which I was made.

Teach me to seek you,

For I cannot seek you

Unless you teach me,

Or find you

Unless you show yourself to me.

Let me seek you in my desire,

Let me desire you in my seeking.

Let me find you by loving you,

Let me love you when I find you.

~ written by St. Anselm