Where Do We Look for God? by Jack Radcliffe

Where Do We Look for God?
Jack Radcliffe
3/31/2013
Philosophers and sages for centuries have written and wondered aloud about the deep need humanity seems to have for connection with what we call God: that higher power in which we have some degree of belief and which explains the unexplainable and confirms or denies our own theories about such things.

The search for God has taken us to what are considered sacred places all over the world. Some look to distant planets, following one theory that we may have been put here by a superior life-form.

For some reason, this itch to find God means packing up and going somewhere else, whether it’s the outdoors, the Middle East, a church building, or the far reaches of the universe. Everywhere but here.

Jeremiah the prophet wrote a letter (Jeremiah 29) to God’s people, whose lives had been defined by clear, specific rituals, practices, and places. Their view was that God was present with them and loved them when they were together as a country. Jeremiah’s letter addressed a people who no longer had that place. Exiled from their home, they found themselves scattered, transplanted, disconnected from one another, and feeling far from God.

Jeremiah’s message to them was simple: Make your home where you are living. God would be with them where they were, and after 70 years he would bring them back. Until then, “ ‘When you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,’ says the Lord” (29:12-14, NLT).

Where we are, in the current moment, God is here. When we search for him where we are, he will be found by us.

Like most Christians, over the years I have found God’s presence at special times, in special places, and with special groups of people. Those times have been rich and meaningful. I have also wrongly thought that those times, places, and people were the best or only ways that my deep connections with God could happen.

Many of us may have become frustrated in our search for God or given up searching because we’ve not found the place where it all seems to come together for us. Jeremiah’s hopeful words show us that the special place where God can be found is right where we are. We often don’t see that God is here because we’re looking elsewhere for him, not seeing that he is very close.

Jeremiah’s encouragement includes something else: the promise that the home we desire, where we will all be together with God, will one day be a reality. For Israel, this meant having a land to call their own and being a nation again. For us it is the hope of heaven.

Saint Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer captures the essence of searching for God where we live:

I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to save me. . . . Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. Amen.

May you find Christ where you are.