“Keep seeking the things above.” Colossians 3:1

“I have climbed highest mountains, I have run through the fields, only to be with you . . . But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”  U2

“I will be found by those who do not seek me.”  Isaiah 65:1

What are you seeking?

How you answer that depends on where you live and your current life situation.  And it can change in an instant, as we’ve witnessed with the Los Angeles fires.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs summarizes what people seek, depending on the lives they are living.  The most basic needs are physiological—such as food, shelter, and sleep.  After that comes the need for safety, which includes financial stability.  Then comes the need for love and belonging, followed by the desire for esteem and respect.  And finally comes the need to achieve ones potential and purpose in life. 

What are you seeking?

The magi that we associate with the Christmas story and the season of Epiphany were seeking something, or someone.  It caused them to leave their lives as they knew them and make an incredibly long journey, possibly 1-2 years, journeying into strange and foreign lands, using a star as their navigation guide, in order to find it—whatever “it” was for them. 

What are you seeking?  What are you willing to give up and how far are you willing to travel, literally or figuratively, in order to find it?

Saul was not an active seeker.  He seemed to be pretty content with his life, even though it involved a great deal of persecuting and killing of others.  As far as we can tell, he wasn’t seeking anything, but then one day The Lord appeared to him, fulfilling those words from Isaiah above.  After that happened everything changed for him.  He was willing to give up his religion, his career, his status and honor, even to the point of changing his name, in order to seek that which was above. We now know him as St. Paul. In essence he moved back down Maslow’s hierarchy.

What are you looking for? 

I’m curious if you feel as though you have “made it” but still sense that something is missing.  That like Bono, you still haven’t found what you’re looking for.

I spent a good part of my life seeking Something or Someone.  I substituted pietistic practices, legalistic religion, other people, and pursuing “looking good” in the eyes of others in my attempt to find it.  But it eluded me.  It took leaving the life that I had carefully crafted, which had not coincidentally for the most part fallen apart, to get serious about the quest.  I think I found it—at least to some extent—but am still looking.  And always will be.  And I like it that way. I believe I’m in good company.

“I believe in the kingdom come, then all the colors will bleed into one, bleed into one.  But yes, I’m still running.

You broke the bonds, and you loosed the chains, carried the cross of my shame, of my shame, You know I believe it.

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”   U2

What are you looking for?  How and where will you find it?