Listening to Jesus' Words and Acting on Them

Where are you in your life?  Where are you — from Me?  To get where you want to go, the first question you always have to answer is Where am I? 

Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what he gives.  We hunger for something more, something other. 

The only thing that will satisfy our hunger for more is to hunger for the One who comes down to Bethlehem, house of Bread, the One who comes after us and offers himself as Bread for our starved souls. 

And for all the wondering, this is the first question of the New Testament, when the wise men come asking, Where is he? (Mt 2:2). 

We only find out where we are when we find out where he is.  We only find ourselves...when we find him.  We lost ourselves at one tree.  And only find our-selves at another. 

Wise men are only wise because they make their priority the seeking of Christ. 

All our moments, all our waking — all the globe is a looking glass to God, and the wise keep seeking the presence of Christ in a thousand places, because you only come to yourself when you come to him. 

And your God, he's coming now, everywhere, for you.  In all humanity's religions, man reaches after God. 

But in all his relationships, God reaches for man.  Reaches for you who have fallen and scraped your heart raw, for you who feel the shame of words that have snaked off your tongue and poisoned corners of your life, for you who keep trying to cover up pain with perfectionism. 

Three words come through the dense thicket of failure: Where are you? 

Your God refuses to give up on you.

Your God looks for you when you're feeling lost, and your God seeks you out when you're down, and your God calls for you when you feel cast aside.  He doesn't run down the rebel.  He doesn't strike down the sinner.  He doesn't flog the failure.