Local Radar

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Hide and Seek or Seek and Find

By Dr. Skip Myers
EdgefieldDaily.com Columnist
web posted May 21, 2007

COLUMNIST – Everyone remembers the game Hide and Seek. Or at least those of my generation and older had the fun of playing this sometime annoying little game. The game goes something like this: one person is “it.”  They then cover their eyes and begin counting to some predetermined arbitrary number while all their little friends run and hide. Once the magical number is reached IT yells, “Ready or not, here I come.” And with that startling announcement IT begins to search. Upon finding a person, that person has to run back to a base of safety before IT can tag them because if they get tagged they then become the dreaded IT for the next round. 

Hide and Seek was a fun, simple game that most likely seems rather dull to the computer-aged child of today. (I know I’m beginning to sound like one of those people who think their generation was the only good one. Honest, that’s not the case. I just think our complex world has robbed us of the joy of simple little pleasures like Hide and Seek.) This was a great game until you got a group of mean children together. When IT would cover their eyes and count instead of hiding all the kids would simply run off to someone else’s house and leave IT looking for friends that no longer existed. This never happened to me, honest.

The frustration of looking for something that doesn’t exist is terrible. Especially, if you thought what you were looking for was something or someone who would let you find them. Many people tend to feel as though a relationship with God is like a game of Hide and Seek. God has gone off somewhere and hidden Himself and when we yell, “Ready or not, I need You,” we then have to go through this exhausting search process hoping to find a God who can hide anywhere in the entire Universe. 

Let me share with you just how God plays Hide and Seek. Most of us spend time living our lives with our eyes closed and covered to the possibilities of a relationship with God. So we count our way through life until we reach something that causes us to stop because we have this sudden realization that we need to find God. Now here’s where the game changes. How would a regular game of Hide and Seek go if when you finished counting you turned around and all your friends were standing right behind you? There’s not much of a need to go searching for what is right in front of you. That’s how God plays the game. Stop counting your way through life with your eyes covered to the possibility of a deeper relationship with Him. Turn around. He’s standing right behind you waiting for you to stop counting.

How do I know this is the way God acts? Read these verses and you might just have the urge to stop counting and turn around. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. (Psalm 9:10)  Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love Your salvation continually say, “The Lord is magnified.”  (Psalm 40:16)  When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”  (Psalm 27:8)  Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

Seeking and finding God involves turning our focus towards Him and giving Him our lives. If we continue to go through life with our eyes covered and our lives turned from Him then we will never realize how close He is to us. We have to make the effort to turn around. The one thing we don’t have to do when we do turn is to embark on a tiring search. The Lord wants to be found if we will only turn around. So why not play a game which according to the rules of this world God really isn’t good at playing. He doesn’t hide because when we seek He wants to be found and will be.
 

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