God Searches for Us

God Searches For Us

I've recently discovered a Catholic author, priest, and professor of psychology, Henri Nouwen.  I've been reading his "The Dance of Life" book. He's got some gems of ideas.

We often talk about the 'search for God', how our souls are looking for him, trying to understand Him, longing for Him. While that is all true, I had never thought about the flip side of that, God is searching for us, longing for us.

Nouwen asks "The question is not "How am I to find God? but "How am I to let myself be found by him?" The question is not "How am I to know God?" but "How am I to let myself be known by God?" And, finally, the question is not "How am I to love God? but "How am I to let myself be loved by God?"

God searches for Adam and Eve, the lost sheep, finds the lost coin, eats with the sinners.

He is searching for US. 

In my experience, often what leads someone to the faith isn't as much reason, history, scripture, etc. but rather a longing.  That longing will never be filled unless God encounters that person. God seeks and finds them and calls them as His own. There really is no rhyme or reason on how Jesus seeks out others. It's random. There's no pattern that I see.  Some encounters take years, others happen in a flash (like Paul).  Backgrounds of people seem not to matter.

God can penetrate a harden heart.  

We still have to choose Him.  But if he encounters us, we have no choice but to embrace the encounter.  I've seen two instances of this.  A man I met once said he felt the Lord calling him specifically to my Church, he came for awhile, I haven't seen him in months (not so say he didn't encounter God and is doing something else). Another man said he had no choice but to come to my Church, he didn't want to be there, but he couldn't ignore it anymore. God encountered him and he couldn't deny it.

When God encounters us, we must listen, it may seem crazy, but God is crazy. He is crazy in love with us.

My new prayer. 

This reflection has taught me another way to pray to bring people to the faith.

Lord, search for my loved ones, those that are lost,  find them, encounter them. Amen.

My silly brain has a vision of a classroom where students are holding up their hands saying "pick me, pick me!"  I'm the teacher behind the student pointing to them and mouthing 'choose this one'.  How do we get Gods' attention so he may choose us? Hello God, I'm right here! Do you see me? This verse from Psalm may answer that question.

God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.  Psalm 53:2

God encounters us first so we can encounter Him for eternity.

How are you allowing God to find you, to know you, to love you?
How will you answer when God calls you by name and says 'where are you'?