The Search

The Search

Mathhew 7:7-8

Cardiff Heights Baptist Church

3rd December 2000

You might not believe this but I have discovered the world’s best method

for searching for something. It works everytime, I always find what I am

looking for. When I lose my wallet or my keys, usually both, I don’t use

up precious energy by undertaking a massive search for the missing

items. I simply yell out, “Catherine!!! I can’t find my keys,” and then I am

able to find my keys because Catherine tells me exactly where to look

and she is always right. My mum had this same knack of knowing exactly

where everything was. So much so that when I was young I think I must

have been ohhh... 24 at the time, I accused my mum of being so devious

as to actually take my stuff and then hide it and when I couldn’t find she

would always be able to tell me where it was and thus take the credit for

finding it for me. I also lose my phone all the time but I can usually take

care of that myself by ringing it. So I can safely say that searching is not

something I am particularly good at. So I feel kind of funny about talking

about the search, the search for meaning, the search for completeness.

But the search for meaning is an entirely different matter isn’t it. It is in

fact the search, the only search that counts. The search for meaning is

something that many people are too busy or too overwhelmed to

undertake but desperately want to. Something that everyone has an

opinion about but no clue as to what it is all about and no idea where to

start looking. The task seems so immense. Many have spent there whole

lives searching and still not found what they were looking for. One of my

favourite bands is U2 and we heard earlier a song by them, “I still haven’t

found what I’m Looking for.”

(Put on over head)

I have climbed highest mountain

I have run through the fields

Only to be with you

I have run

I have crawled

I have scaled these city walls

Only to be with you

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

I have kissed honey lips

Felt the healing in her fingertips

It burned like fire

This burning desire

I have spoke with the tongue of angels

I have held the hand of a devil

It was warm in the night

I was cold as a stone

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

I believe in the kingdom come

Then all the colours will bleed into one

Well yes I’m still running

You broke the bonds and you

Loosed the chains

Carried the cross

Of my shame

You know I believed it

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

He has done everything. Looked everywhere and even done the

religious thing but he still hasn’t found what he is looking for. If everyone

wants to find out the answer why are so many people not looking. As we

found out on P.O.V. many people are too busy. Too busy working to try

and find out why they are are working. But perhaps there is a deeper

problem. Perhaps we have forgotten how to look. We need to relearn

how to search.

A guy named Robert Fulghum wrote a book called All I Really Need to

Know I learned in Kindergarten. I blame this book for my results at

college. The book reminds us of some fundamental truths for our quest

for meaning. Speaking of our experiences as small children, he says,

‘And rembember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned,

the biggest word of all - LOOK.’

Sadly, so much of our life has became so complicated that we have

taken all the looking out of the picture. It eliminates searching, closes

down our options, answers all our questions and leaves us needing to

know no more or even worse wanting to know no more. It has been said

that the best thing any teacher can do for their students is not to teach

them something but to activate a search for knowledge; the rest will

follow.

One of the reasons we are not searching is that we have been given the

answers before we were ever interested in the questions. We are not

asked to LOOK. Our curiosity is never pricked, our interest is never

aroused. Better to have people confused and working toward

understanding than for them to think they know it all. So at the end of the

night if you are feeling a little more confused than that is fantastic since

you are perhaps a little closer to the answer. It is when we are most