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Seek, and ye shall find: A warning?

Seek and ye shall find.

I've read this phrase dozens of times, but for some reason this time it hit me differently. I always saw it before as Christ saying "seek me, and ye shall find me." Which is probably what he is saying but I realized the other day I can take this another way. As my husband and I were talking, he pointed out that it could even be read as warning.

Seek negativity, and ye shall find.

Seek a victim status, and ye shall find.

Seek for flaws in the gospel, and ye shall find.

A few years ago I read "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Anchor. (I totally recommend this book!) One part that has stuck with me over the years is his explanation on how the brain works. When we decide to believe something, our brain focuses on that belief and is constantly scanning for evidence of what we believe or scanning for the focus. When the brain is focused intently on something, it dumps all the extra information coming at so it seems like whatever you are focusing on is true. This is why people who believe they are lucky often have "lucky" experiences, because they are looking for them. They did an experiment where they told people to scan a newspaper and count all the photos. There was a huge ad on one of the pages that told the person to stop counting and that he or she had won $250. But so many people missed it because they were focusing on counting the photos, so while their brain saw it, it dumped the information because it wasn't their focus. Crazy, huh? 

This phenomenon can affect so many parts of our lives. If you decide that the church has problems, then your brain starts focusing in on all the problems and before you know it, all you can see are the problems and you wondered how you ever believed in the gospel in the first place. It can happen with your job too. Something negative happens at work, and before you know it, your job is the worst job in the world because you've started focusing on the negative and your brain has been dumping any positive from your job.

Reading this again in this part of my life made me want to check myself and what I am seeking. Am I seeking things that support my views? Because if so, my brain will find them, and dump the rest. Or am I really seeking truth? 

I want to be seeking truth, not my personal agenda. I want to be seeking light, knowledge, and understanding.

In John 14:6 it says that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life." If I want to seek truth, then I need to seek him. As I've been contemplating what truth is and how to find it, I've come to the conclusion that knowing Christ is the first step to knowing what is or isn't moral. And when I say knowing him I mean knowing who he really is, not who I want him to be, not who others tell me he is. I want to know the Christ for who he is, and know truth through knowing him.

It's my hope that as I seek truth and seek to know Jesus, I will find truth and find Jesus. That is the promise he gives us. 

What about you, what do you seek?


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