I Found God. Or Did God Find Me?

“I found God on the corner of 1st and Amistad,” goes the popular Fray song. Many of us who talk about knowing God talk that way. “I found Jesus,” people say.

“Was he lost?” I want to ask.

Does God crouch down behind a bush, counting to a billion, playing hide and seek with us? Or does God seek us?

Eugene C. Scott joins Mike in writing A Daily Bible Conversation twice a week.

TODAY’S READING (click here to view today’s reading online)

2 Kings 6:1-7:20

Acts 15:36-16:15

Psalm 142:1-7

Proverbs 17:24-25

INSIGHTS AND EXPLANATIONS

2 Kings 6:1-7:20: There’s a cliché that asks, “If you can’t find God, guess who has moved?” This is a guilt-line to try to convince us we can’t sense God because we are doing something wrong. Maybe. But the four lepers found out that it was God who had moved. God was not sitting against the city wall waiting for them to die, as they were. God was out in front of them taking care of business.

“If you can’t find God, guess who has moved?” Sometimes the answer is: God. And we need to get up and follow.

Acts 15: Paul and Barnabas argue over young John Mark. As far as we know, they never work together again. A deep friendship is broken. But God redeems even this. In place of Barnabas, God provides Silas, Timothy, Titus, and many others as partners for Paul.

And John Mark matures and becomes a partner of Peter–another person Paul argued with–and eventually writes The Gospel According to Mark.

When we give our disagreements and disappointments to God, he turns them into better stories.

If you’ve found A Daily Bible Conversation helpful, share it with your friends. Forward your daily email or send them a link to the website: www.bibleconversation.com.

THE WORD MADE FRESH

I believe God seeks us out.

For me this is really good news because I’ve never been able to find anything. “If it was a snake it would have bit you,” my mom used to say pointing out my lost shoe right under my nose. If not for my wife, I would have starved to death long ago because of my inability to find food in the refrigerator.

This is genetic, some say, part of being a male.

Maybe so. Even though God is pretty big, I’ve over-looked him often enough. Then some of us even refuse to look.

I once saw a magazine advertisement that asked, “What do you do if people won’t come to the doctor? Take the doctor to them.”

God had the same idea first. God takes it to us, so to speak. He sent Philip and Peter and Paul and Barnabas and many un-named others out to find those who had need. For that matter, God never hung out a shingle for his spiritual health clinic, hoping we would seek him out.

“Where are you?” God asked Adam and Eve. God sought out Abraham, Moses, the Samaritan woman at the well, and, in Acts 16, Lydia. God even seeks out you and me. As a little boy, I once ran away to see if my mom would look for me. She did. It felt great–not the spanking I received after she found me–but that she cared enough to seek me out.

Did you know God cares so much about you he is always on the hunt for you? The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson called God in his poem by the same name.

“Lost and insecure, You found me, you found me,

Lying on the floor, where were you? Where were you?”

The Fray ask as if it’s God’s fault we hide from him. Maybe, if you haven’t already, it’s time to stop running.

1. Which passage spoke to you and why?
2. Has God found you?
3. If so, when and how?

If you’re reading this blog on Facebook and you’d like to join the conversation, click here. www.bibleconversation.com.

Eugene co-pastors The Neighborhood Church in Littleton, CO and writes a blog eugenesgodsightings.blogspot.com