Tuesday, July 9, 2024
An oft quoted passage from the 6th chapter of Matthew is “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” In the Old Testament we hear something similar in Jeremiah, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” And in the Bhagavad Gita we read in the 9th chapter, “Seeking me in your heart, you will at last be united with me.”
This idea of finding and/or seeking the divine is curious. The word seek implies that whatever we are looking for is hiding or lost. Sounds like a game. But the game is subtle. These references to seeking/hiding and finding/losing are like asking the question “Where is the universe?” The universe has no location, per se. It’s everything and everywhere. There is no place the universe is not, so how can you find it if it’s not lost?
Perhaps the same is true of God. Where is God? God has no location, per se. God is everything and everywhere. There is no place God is not, so how can you seek? Maybe God is “hiding” in plain sight. That’s what we’ve been told by spiritual gurus for eons, yet we still manage to keep God hidden, usually in a place we call upstairs, as in “the man upstairs.”
You are in the universe, I suppose. Even better, you are what the universe is doing in a place you call here and now. You are in God, I suppose. Even better, you are what God is doing in a place you call here and now. I wonder what the “the Big Guy upstairs” is up to. I’m not sure you have to walk up the stairs to find out. The trick is knowing that the one seeking is also the one hiding. Clever, isn’t it?