Seeking God with Your Whole Being

One of the realities of our human makeup that one needs to acknowledge is that we are more than just material beings. We think, feel, act and at the core of it is the issue of our identity – our sense of being.

When it comes to spirituality, sometimes one can lean towards not thinking – emptying the mind, or not feeling – suppress, or ignore longing, or not acting – withdrawing to remote places for long periods of time, separating oneself from their home, loved ones, and daily life – in an effort to find God.

I recently heard of a man whose pursuit of God led him to believe that his family were a distraction and wanted to separate himself from them, I’ve often heard about how work, studies, one’s daily schedule all keep people from seeking God. And yes, there are times when we need to shut things down, and spend time alone to meditate, reflect and listen – there’s room for that as a temporary respite – but to think that that’s the only way God would reveal himself?

It was in between the years 2005-06, that I discovered this truth. Between working full-time as an accountant, going for night classes for my Master’s degree, and making myself available for people that I wanted to journey with, I wondered how I could hear God. Most days, I would open the Bible and fall asleep without having the energy to really think about things (this still happens by the way). During that season, it took me 4 years to complete reading the Bible from cover to cover. It was a slow, gradual process. My quiet times were real quiet, and I would find myself waking up at an odd corner of the bed. But I found that, through all of that, as I look back at my journals from that time, God was still slowly but surely revealing himself. He was faithful. Be it during moments when I was at work, or during my walks to night classes, through the friends I was journeying with, He slowly, steadily was directing my paths – like how the writer in Proverbs promises, “He will make your paths straight”. And sometimes when it feels like life i just taking you in circles, it’s a good truth to remember – he makes your paths straight. He is faithful.

The more I look at scripture, I find God revealing himself to people in the reality of their every day life – in the midst of setbacks, successes, and the daily grind, in the midst of the chaos, the loss of identity, the confusion of roles, the temptation, the decisions, choices, mixed up priorities – in the midst of the of of this – life – God chooses to reveal himself.

Every part of our being is involved in our daily activities – emotions, thoughts, will, rational, spirit – be it at play or at work. But somehow we seem to think that when it comes to spirituality there are parts of ourselves that we need to leave out the door – like our intellect, or our emotions. Does this have to be the case?

Could it be that when God calls us to himself, he calls us to seek him from the depth of our being – our whole self? “Love the Lord your God”, Jesus said, “with all your heart, soul and mind.” Even in the Shema, the call to Israel in Deuteronomy 6:4, God calls his people in this manner –

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Jesus would later say that all the law and the prophets hang on this command. One can’t help but see the wholeness of this loving, using all the senses, all the mind and even physical strength.

Love is often seen as an emotion. I must confess, I wish I felt love often. For those in relationships like a marriage, it’s a quick discovery that love is more often an act of the will beyond the flutter of emotion. And in loving, we use all our senses isn’t it? Eyes, ears, thoughts, actions, touch – all of it.

The thought I’d like us to ponder on today is whether one can seek God and find Him from the moments of grief to joy, from the struggle of building intellect and academia, the daily toil of work and responsibilities, the joy and grace in friends and loved ones – it’s when we come to Him with the sum total of our being that he is able to work in us gradually making us wholly what he has created us to be.

#seeking #trust #journey #love #jesus #identity