The kiddo I nanny loves to search for bugs. In the big rock pile in their backyard, the child picks up a rock, looks underneath to see what's there, and then marks the rock with a piece of chalk. When a bug is found, the child laughs and does a special dance in celebration of the life that was discovered. The child's joy is contagious!What distinguishes the living from the living dead? Certainly there are a lot of things. The distinguishing mark that I'd like to focus on today is the difference between following and seeking.
One of the sad trends in the American Christian church across the denominations is a lethargy in worship and missiology. We tend to focus on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as though it were the only thing that Jesus meant when He said, "follow me".
One of my dear friends this weekend, at a Unitarian Universalist fellowship, gave a homily on Proverbs 8. This being one of my favorite passages (particularly as it relates to John 1) and she, being a very dear friend, I was eager to hear what she had to say. The main focus of her message was the same as Wisdom's call to Her followers: "seek and you will find". My friend encouraged her fellowship to seek after Wisdom, to be on the look-out for this thing called "God" and to ask lots of questions. We who were listening were encouraged to not be complacent in our spirituality, to rise up and discover something new about ourselves, to allow ourselves to be challenged and to grow in unexpected ways through this spiritual, playful game of hide-and-seek with a jovial, loving Creator.
