Gone In Search

I like a good treasure hunt. I’ve spent way too many hours on the internet looking for a bargain on some new man toy I don’t really need but would be O, so happy to have if I could buy it for a steal. I must admit however, that it is the search… the primordial hunt that fills some deep-seated genetic coding to scour the information jungle to capture my unsuspecting prey as I pounce upon it in a flurry of credit card numbers, codes and secret passwords. This is a bit of an exaggeration but some of you know the raw coursing adrenaline rush of bargain hunting and bargain bragging that I’m describing. You’ve spent the hours at the flea market, the garage sales, the closeout stores and maybe have even rescued a tattered bookshelf from a garbage pile in front of a stranger’s house. I believe that in all of us is some basal need to hunt… to search for the ultimate bargain or at least the one of a kind treasure that is not only rare but verifies our persistence and shrewd wrangling skills. But why is it that once the hunt is over and the prize claimed that one feels an emotional let down?

Maybe, part of the answer is learning a little about ourselves from the wisest man to ever live. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes states that he had found, “God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes (Ecclesiastes 7:29).” Ecclesiastes is Solomon (or some unknown author posing as Solomon) offering a running dialogue (a.k.a. soliloquy) about their search for meaning. Man is truly restless about existence and often gets lost in the search. Unfortunately, the search has often led man to be entangled in the manifold schemes of the devil and his own fallen nature. Man has tarnished his original naiveté and God given uprightness all because of his foolish search for something better.

I long to be upright! I want to sing perfect harmony with that garden hymn of the Savior whose refrain is, “Not my will but His will be done!” But I can’t deny that I’m a wanderer… a searcher… a restless soul that loves the hunt. So pray with me and for me that I will hunger and thirst for righteousness… that I will search the Word daily for spiritual constancy and rest my treasures in heaven! And I will pray for you my fellow searchers. -DAN