Pursuing God

The bus ride to and back from El Salvador also gave me the chance to do some reading.
This time, it was a classic by A. W. Tozer: The Pursuit of God. It was really good to reflect on how we search for God -- that our relationship with Him is not a result of right opinion, but of our connection with and experience of the living God. He explains how God planted in each of us the seed of longing for Him, but we choose how we continue to seek Him in our lives. He is at work all around us. The spiritual world is not separate from us or in a different dimension, but rather is an integral part of every aspect of our lives in the material world, "inviting our attention and challenging our trust".

We all have some sort of spiritual awareness, which we can choose to recognise and cultivate in order to see more of God - and to hear his voice. Interestingly he talks of how God is always talking - it´s just a case of us learning to listen - or to tune into his voice. "Every one of us has had experiences which we have not been able to explain- a sudden sense of loneliness, or a feeling of wonder or awe in the face of the universal vastness. Or we have had a fleeting visitation of light like an illumination from some other sun, giving us in a quick flash an ssurance that we are from another world, that our origins are divine."

With that basis, the presence of faith is not anything to do with right theologies, or a one off formulaic prayer, but "a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God". "Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus." That is somehow a huge challenge - but at the same time, a hilarious relief -  recognising that to seek more of God, I actually need to do less and listen and observe more. I want to do that.