A friend's father was kind enough to answer some tough questions I posed about religious dogma and faith. He does not sugar-coat his message; rather, he reminds that the task of seeking lies with the seeker. "Seek and ye shall find" doesn't mean "It will seek you."
A good heart that honestly seeks to know God will find God. The dishonest heart will pretend to seek God, when, in fact, she really has no intention of listening because... what if she doesn't like what she hears? What if finding God involves casting light into dim recesses of the heart, exposing a host of egocentric flaws that one would then be obligated to fix? (Hello major life disruption!)
My friend's father asks: "One must examine one's heart and be honest in that evaluation. Are we willing to become followers of Christ? To give up what we want and make a decision to do what Jesus wants? Or do we fight against it and try to justify ourselves and find fault with the Bible or fault with the church or fault with Christians or fault with rules and dogma when in reality, the fault lies with us. We don't want to obey." (Um, yeah, probably. That transparent, huh?)
Contemplating this, I see myself as a petulant child who doesn't want to take out the garbage. Although not a particularly difficult request, perhaps I'm afraid I'll do a poor job (feelings of failure, inadequacy, disappointment) or I'll open the door to future garbage-disposal requests (feelings of obligation and guilt). Or maybe, honestly, I'm lazy and ignorance is easier (which is the hardest truth to swallow). It takes no effort to throw darts at a board - to criticize something unknown. To discover and learn, though, requires discipline and sincere desire. "To seek" is to make an effort. Without the effort, thou shalt not find.
"Atheism is the religion of the busy." -- Fay Weldon
