THE QUEST

Recently I sat in Starbucks minding my own business, I was hard pressed to ignore a conversation taking place right next to me, which quite frankly caused me to mull over some things in my mind based upon what these two women were talking about. The discussion revolved around their perceptions on how to live life, making every decision predicated upon what they thought God would think about that decision, and whether or not that decision was Biblically correct. As I sipped my espresso and ate my apple, several things came to mind as they continued to talk. I pondered for a bit what it is that I am trying to achieve in this moment-by-moment walk with God? What is this quest I am on? So I thought I would try and convey my thoughts as best I can.

First, it is a most high and honorable position to seek the wisdom of God in all things; to engage Him as one would a close confidant, sharing your heart and deepest concerns. Without a doubt, in my opinion, this is imperative. After all, who better to talk about life with than the Author of life Himself? At the same time it is vitally important to have people in our lives we can trust, those we can be transparent and vulnerable with no matter what we share, good things, or bad. Most importantly, someone who understands the idea of “in confidence”. They are hard to find, but when you do, they are more valuable than gold. It’s good to get opinions and advice. Proverb says, “there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors” and the honest truth is our hearts are deceitfully wicked and not to be trusted – even if we think we are good people. So it’s important to have those in our lives who are willing to be honest, forthright and unafraid to go out on the ledge with and for us when it comes to telling us the truth.

Though it took me almost an entire lifetime, I try to do things these days not out of what ‘feels right’ or “makes sense”, but out of conversations I have both with God and those in my life with whom I ask questions seeking their wisdom, guidance and advice. I have come to understand that, more often than not, God uses people to speak to me, and very often when I don’t necessarily want it, nor am I soliciting it. And more often than not they have no idea He just used them. This can be uncomfortable at times, but God knows me, and He knows how I am, how I do and do not listen. He also knows that as I’ve gotten older and gone through a lot of the tests He has both brought and allowed in my life for my good, I have learned to listen more attentively than I did when I was younger (though I have certainly not mastered it by any means). So beyond a shadow of a doubt, seeking the wisdom of God, through whatever means He chooses to bring it, is as necessary and maybe even more so, than the food we need each day to sustain us. Jesus said we don’t have because we don’t ask. So in this case asking is not really optional, it is mandatory.

            But I couldn’t help but be struck by the idea that as these two women talked and plotted out their every step, that the tendency for us to get stuck in the horizontal verses vertical relationship can be very easy if we’re not careful. We can become so focused on what others think and say that we loose sight of the fact God is intimate, not even realizing that God speaks as He always has! Some who are reading this will say, “Well, I’ve never heard Him”. My question back would be, “Really? How do you know you’ve never heard Him?”

Most would say that God only speaks to those who are either ‘worthy’ or in some form of leadership. But I want to encourage you, relationship with God is supposed to be what it was intended to be, a relating-partnership! Not a buddy relationship as so many of the modern worship songs erroneously portray Him as, but one in which two individuals are bound together through intimacy and transparency, engaging one another as those do who are “more than friends”. For us, it is based in not only our willingness to be broken and humble, but also our eagerness to engage. God continuously invites us to come close and draw near. That level of intimacy is not found in a building or a movement, or in all the mechanisms of organized religion or a man, but in the transformation that is birthed by our desire to get close… I mean up close and personal, face to face with the Creator of all things.

Too often we mistake a “religious experience” or the acquiring of Biblical knowledge as the means to satisfy our need for a “God fix”. In all honesty, most are not willing to get that close to Him. We prefer a safe distance rather than a personal meeting with Him. It is completely understandable as it challenges every fiber of who we are and shakes the very foundations of what we believe. But the results of keeping your distance are neither life changing, nor life sustaining. It only produces a “form of godliness” rather than the power to transform us. I speak from personal experience, not head knowledge.

A perfect illustration would be where Israel at Sinai. In their minds when Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God, he took way too long to return. They assumed he was dead, and because they had no desire to get close with God out of fear but were content to let Moses go up and do it for them, the result was disastrous. It was a return to the familiar and the results were life ending for many of them. Sound familiar? After all, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its way ends in death. The damaging effects of their unwillingness to be intimate reaped a harvest of what the lack of intimacy always produces in a spiritual sense, religion! In this case it manifested itself in the form of an idol to take God’s place… the golden calf!

As I listened to the women talking about how they make sure every step lines up perfectly, what came to my mind was that there is an unnaturalness to such a perspective. It is not one based in the freedom and joy an intimate relationship with God brings, but rather in the fear and trepidation that every step may be a misstep. As honorable as the idea behind it may appear, the outcome does not reap the desired affect. Rather than unlock us, it enslaves us. The relationship God paid such a great price for is not about rules and regulations, but intimacy and oneness. The same closeness Adam had with God when he walked and talked with Him in the Garden and Jesus modeled for all who would follow Him as what should be the natural tendency and desire of each believer. Originally Adam was unafraid and desired to be close. They had become so close that when it was broken through Adam’s willingness to go against what God had told him, it caused him to become afraid of that intimacy and hide.

Are you hiding today? Are you afraid to get close with the One who loves you more than you can even comprehend? He paid dearly to have the intimate relationship He desires with you.

Paul said, “It is for freedom that Messiah has set us free”. For us then, the challenge is to actually ‘be free’ and not allow that freedom to be a path returning us to our former slavery. If we were set free to be who we are, to worship God intimately and openly based upon that freedom, then the objective is to not come back under that legalism and bondage, but to embrace the power that an intimate relationship with God was created to be.

But for each one of us, the quest is a personal choice.

© 2011 Steven Bliss
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