Evendays

Take a minute and do the ABCs of what people are looking for: Adventure, Beauty, Courage, Direction, Encouragement, Family… Always looking for something. Even the most obscure letter cannot resist our efforts…

God, Honor, Integrity, Joy, Knowledge, Love… We search for noble things. Things that make a difference. Things that last. Things which bring us no shame. Things worth fighting for.

Money, Normalcy, Opportunities, Peace and Quiet… Then there are the less noble things. A certain excitement, pleasure or even exercise of power. Things that energize us for a moment, yet bring us no closer to the person we want to be.

Relationships, Sex, Time, Understanding, Virtue… Perhaps we can learn who people are by examining what they are searching for. If we could know the desire of the heart (even our own heart), would we not also know the person, really know what’s in a man, know who s/he is?

Wealth, Youth, Zeal… There. It’s finished. The question, “What are you looking for” turns out to be less innocent than we may have thought.

BTW, to those who are a bit more perceptive… What about X? Too easy… It marks the spot on the weathered parchment for that long, sought-after treasure.

Have you found it yet?

A little girl is searching the aisles for her mommy while a young man examines the labels for the perfect wine for the perfect meal. An old man goes looking for his medicine at the nearby pharmacy while his wife searches for her bus card in her bottomless handbag.

Everyone is searching for something. Yet not all “searches” have the same value. If the bottle of wine is corked, the evening will still take place. But if the little girl doesn’t find her mother, or if the old man picks up the wrong prescription, the consequences will be terrible.

So what are you looking for? And if you don’t find it, what will be the consequences? For what if, just what if you found love and job and money and family, all those important things, and you missed life? Would that be tragic? Or would it just be the norm for another normal week?

Jesus made it so clear to those who were searching: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice… How sad it would be to find everything else, and miss the kingdom of God. How sad it would be to miss… Life!