Seek the Lord and Live
~ ... Amos 5:6a

The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy told of the day he was so overcome with depression that he considered suicide. On this day he went off for a long walk, trying to find an answer to life… unable to find real meaning in the things he was doing at that time. In his desperation, he went back to the house and, as a last resort, began to pray. Tolstoy then wrote this:

So then, why look I further? The reason I can't help thinking of God is because God is here, and the reason life takes on meaning when I think of God is because God gives life meaning. This is what I'm looking for. This is it. I will seek God and live.

Jesus said, “Seek (and keep on seeking) and you will find." (Matthew 7:7). The question worth asking ourselves is: What are we seeking? There are any number of worthwhile and desirable goals to which we can aspire (as well as a long list of vain pursuits that vie for our attention). From time to time it is helpful to take inventory of your lives, order our priorities, and discern what really matters to us. As we recognize with Tolstoy that God gives life meaning, indeed that God is life, may we join our prayers with the Psalmist:

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
~ Psalm 63:1