Seeking

It’s Epiphany, the season in the church year that traditionally begins with the story of the astrologers or magi following a star to find the newborn King of the Jews. Our neighbors down the street have a full life-sized picture of that nativity scene on their garage door and a sign in their yard that says: Wise Men Still Seek Him. This always irks me a little… what about women? But that aside, I wonder what exactly folks putting this sign up are seeking? Are they suggesting we should still be seeking a child, or the adult version of Jesus? Are they suggesting we kneel down at a manger, or before a king or savior?  Or are we now seeking something more? If anything spiritual at all?

When it comes to your spiritual life, what do you seek? Personally, I continue to seek deeper understandings of the divine within and around me. I continue to seek a way to live true to what I preach. I seek to stay more centered, less stuck in my ego, more patient and compassionate… yikes, it’s actually a long list of things I’m seeking. Some days go better than others.

In Doorways to the Soul, there is a story of the Hasidic master Rabbi Barukh and a time when his grandson Yeheil was playing hide-and-go-seek with a friend. Yeheil hid himself well and waited a long time for his friend to find him. Finally, he came out of his hiding place only to discover that his friend had not been looking for him at all. Discovering this, Yeheil ran to his grandfather in tears at his friend’s faithlessness. Then tears brimmed in Rabbi Barukh’s eyes, and he said: “God says the same thing: ‘I hide, but no one wants to seek me.’”

Phillip Gulley wrote in his substack just this last week that, “Seven thousand American churches close each year, 1,500 pastors leave ministry every month to do something else.”

WHY?? Have people stopped seeking? Or are they seeking something else? Do you know anyone who has left church and why? I’ve seen many folks leave the church (and not join another) over the years and I often wonder… are they still seeking anything spiritual or have they given up.

Let’s talk about the new year… did you make any resolutions? I used to do this more when I was younger and more optimistic about my ability to follow through. Not so much anymore.

On New Year’s Day, Carrie Newcomer wrote about the difference between resolution and revolution. Resolutions usually involve solving problems, changing something or beginning something – eating less, exercising more, getting rid of stuff, saving more, learning a new skill. Inherently there is nothing wrong with that, other than we’ve learned that these resolutions often just peter out and get left by the wayside.

A revolution, on the other hand is about a fundamental change in the way we think about or visualize something, it is a shift, a new perspective. For the last couple of years I think I’ve done something like this. For me it looked like a word or phrase that I would hold before me as a guide through the year. Two years ago it was “I can’t control anyone else.” Last year it was “acceptance.” And this year it is “let go.” This wasn’t a resolution because it wasn’t something I was committing to accomplish. It was more of a revolution because it drew me into new ways of approaching situations, new ways of thinking about things as they occurred.

Newcomer writes:

What might happen if instead of focusing on resolving an old problem, we decided to intentionally open up our minds to a whole new way of thinking. What might change if we did as Rilke described and truly welcomed, “the new year, full of things that have never been." What might happen if I decided to not just focus on how to keep working with the well-worn grooves of the path before me, but rather, consider what has always held true at the very center of my journey, what true thing do I keep circling around, as the earth orbits the sun. What I mean is, what if I listened to what sings at the center of my heart, what endures and against all odds, what helps me to see that there is still a path, but it may look different than anything I’ve imagined until now.

What if our soul is calling us to seek a spiritual revolution in ourselves? What might that look like as we go forth seeking into the New Year? The answer will be different for each of us. Perhaps you might like to pick a word or phrase to companion you through 2025.

Happy New Year!

Kaye