Baqash : To Seek

 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8.

Imagine yourself in the middle of a hide and seek game. Now, imagine playing hide and seek blindfolded while cursing at and throwing dirt in the eyes of the seeker. This is what it is like to seek as a human being, and we can see that even very early in the story of Man that we are blocked from and even see that we cower when it is time to seek, and become recluse when it is time to knock.

“God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:27

Seek: attempt to find (something).

I want to find…whatever there is to find…but how do I seek in an effective manner to really find what I am looking for? And…what am I even seeking?

The biggest questions in life are many, but the most common “deep” questions are ones such as: “What happens when we die?”, “Is there a God?” and “How did we come to exist?”. What we are looking for in these questions is the Truth. We want to know how we came to be, if there is a God, and what happens when we die.

The Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato agreed that Truth was something that could be found, how important it is to find the Truth and how to find it. Socrates argued that we are best when we only communicate the truth, and Plato said that we can find the truth through dialogue, questioning, and testing a theory. Honest scientists apply these principles in their own search for the Truth, presenting a theory, testing it, questioning it, and coming to a conclusion based off of their results. Dr. Jordan Peterson, a modern psychologist and thinker puts a great influence on the importance of truth, and goes so far as to say that “The path to hell is paved with lies”. “It is important to speak the truth with oneself and others, as living in lies prevents personal growth and happiness.” Jordan says.

So we must seek the truth! We can all go on our marry way, and all live in truth and happiness. We can all avoid “hell” whatever that means to you, now that we have it all figured out…right? WRONG!

We see from the mysteries of mythology, ranging from the Greeks and the story of Prometheus, the Buddhist story of Samudda-vāṇija Jātaka, to the Judeo-Christian narrative of the Fall from Grace all have a narrative that proposes a disobedience of mankind toward it’s creator and a leaning towards believing lies.

In the Biblical narrative for example, mankind is made in a perfect world which is in perfect harmony with the stewards (mankind) the creation, and the Creator. Naturally, we screw it all up and when God comes into the garden looking for them…Adam and Eve are hidden from God. “⁹ And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Gen 3:9 This was the effect of throwing dirt in the eyes of the one we are seeking. The guilt of their failure and disobedience hid them from the presence of their God, and then they themselves ran from the source of Truth. “and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” Gen 3:8.

Immediately, Adam blames God instead of taking personal responsibility, and Eve blames the Serpent instead of taking personal responsibility. Even in light of them being so afraid and full of guilt, they still run from the truth of the matter. THEY threw dirt in the eye of the one they seek, not their partner, and not the serpent.

Based off of the evidence we have that we have hid ourselves from the truth, and figuratively blinded the source of truth through the lies we tell ourselves and others each day. I say all of this to answer my first question with two more.

Can we even be trusted to find and accept the Truth when we do seek? And…can we be trusted to TELL the truth if we find it?

Personally I struggle to continue to seek honestly all the time and have to constantly check myself to stay open, and making sure I am not making the conclusion that I want and rather make the conclusion that most likely is. My challenge to the reader today and for the coming week is to place extra significance on identifying the moments where you are letting what you want to be the truth get in the way of what is actually the truth. Maybe you are convinced Football is a stupid sport for big dumb idiots. Hopefully not, but if that is the case…identify whether or not you believe that because you have real verifiable evidence for that, or if you are just holding a grudge because that one time a football player was mean to you.

Thanks for reading! Please send in “Big” questions for me to write about. I need ideas and will only improve in my writing the more that I post.