By Gary Topping–
Don’t try so hard. That’s my piece of unconventional wisdom (if it even turns out to be that) for this week.
We’re all aware of several places in the Gospels where Jesus, either by example or by parable, endorses active, persistent prayer. We are advised to seek God, to knock on the door until it opens. This week, though, I want to focus on the many instances throughout the Bible where God, not Man, was doing the seeking and the finding, and to suggest that rather than beating ourselves up trying to find God, we instead just try to put ourselves in a place where God can find us.
God found Adam. He found Abraham and Moses. He found the prophets Jonah, Isaiah and Amos. Later on, he found Andrew and Peter, James and John, and finally he found Saul of Tarsus. All of them, presumably, had other plans for their lives when God found them, and some of them positively did not want to be found: Adam, conscious of his sin, hid from God, and Jonah and Saul were heading in exactly the opposite direction.
There are ample scriptural examples where God tells us that he is looking for us:
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)
“You did not choose me, but I chose you. . . .” (John 15:16)
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20—all quotes RSV)
As we consider this subject, we might take a page from the Reverend Billy Graham, whose funeral is this week. I was never a fan, but his crusades, as he called them, were impressive to anyone. At the conclusion of his sermon, the choir would begin singing,
Just as I am—without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Hundreds of people would begin walking down the aisles to the front of the auditorium where they would find God. Or perhaps God had already found them. The important thing is that they were offering themselves to God “just as I am,” with no reservations or preconditions. Surely that is the condition God wants to find us in during this Lent, and perhaps if we stop trying so hard to find him and just put ourselves into a place where he can find us, he will.
