Seeking to Become - January 2015

I became overwhelmed with all that life was throwing at me there for awhile and lost track of time. I haven't found a focus for a couple months, so in an effort to find it, I am getting back to what I know works. And this works.

There was a conversation on truth that I was dragged into earlier today, and it really got me thinking. We like to know the truth. We all would like to know what we should do with ourselves and where we are headed. There are so many philosophies out there in the world that conflict with each other that unless you're really listening closely for spiritual discernment, it can be confusing at every turn. And I don't care what they say, even the science people don't have it down to a science. Science changes with discovery. One day with one batch of scientific truth, you know one thing. Give it ten years, and then all of a sudden, you've been eating food that will give you cancer. Some things are constant, like gravity, and those are trustworthy, but not all science is like that. Some of it doesn't ring true no matter what the experts might say.

I promise that I'm not sharing these thoughts to dredge up a big fight. There is truth in science and scientific discovery. Some of my favorite classes in college were science courses (actually, chemistry and geology to be precise). But there is more to this complex existence than stark, provable facts. For example, take chemistry (the relationship kind). No one can prove why certain people are drawn to each other, but it happens. There is nothing you can quantify that would make any sense logically speaking. There are many examples of things in this life that can't be proven with evidence, but they are real and make life wonderful. Like the love of a mother. There is no way to explain that scientifically. And then the big one that is at the heart of every truth debate is faith. Faith works on an entirely different plane than science. Faith is the hope of things that are true which are not seen. Once it is proven to you, faith becomes knowledge. And that knowledge is not required to be based on quantifiable facts; it is pretty much always based solely on others' or your own personal witness of spiritual things.

I would entreat anyone who is a seeker of truth to heed these simple words:

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.  

James 1:5-6 

For this month, I will seek out answers that I lack by exercising my faith and praying more unwaveringly. I lack wisdom in many areas of my life, so the goal is a worthy one. The promise that wisdom "shall be given" if we ask in faith fuels the hope that I hold in my heart. We just need to ask and listen for the answer.