God Seeking

＂God seeking＂ can have different meanings. On the one hand, the seeker is the subject who is doing the seeking. On the other hand, if God is the subject, then God is the One doing the seeking. In this testimony, I have both in mind.

My story is about a troubled teen who finds God. I write to reflect on what it means to be met by God and how it comes about. There is no blueprint here, but my personal experiences contain some universal truths that can help others start and then navigate their own journey.

Over my early to mid-teen years, I ascend from deep darkness to radiant light.

Plato taught that the difference between being ignorant and knowing is the difference between shadow and reality. He uses the example of someone born and raised in a cave, because the cave dweller lives in darkness. As he begins to ascend, he encounters reflected light from the entrance above, now he lives in a world of shadows. It is only when he leaves the cave and moves into the light of day that the cave dweller leaves the realm of shadows and gains a direct understanding of the world. This journey from darkness and shadow to reality and ideas is what philosophy is all about.

Whatever faculty we use to apprehend the unseen world, I’m confident we do not have to navigate our ascent to God so much as God initiates His descent to draw us into the light. Left to ourselves, we would still be lost in a world of shadows; cave dwellers.

I’ve gradually come to realize there is only a thin veil between seen and unseen worlds. There are two halves to reality. Remove the veil, and both sides can be seen as one. What begins as God’s descent into my world ends with my ascent to God’s world, as he lifts me from my earth-bound self to unseen and eternal realms.

God comes to me. He draws me into his realm. I discover God as He reveals Himself to me. I understand another seeker, who was less philosophical and more desperate. A guilt-ridden sailor on a slaving ship in the middle of a maelstrom. John Newton put it this way: