What happens when you search for God with all your heart?
According to Scripture and personal experience, you find God.
You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13 CSB)
Is there a pattern for this journey back to God? Or is everyone’s journey unique?
The answer is a resounding, yes. Yes there is a pattern, but everyone’s journey is also unique.
In Finding Your Way Back to God, Dave and Jon Ferguson have uncovered five universal awakenings that humans journey though as they find their way back to God. And as you’ll see through the stories that I’ll share from the book here, everyone’s journey is truly unique. So buckle up and get ready. These stories will help you see that as much as we need to find our way back to God, “God wants to be found even more than you want to find him.” [1]
1. Awakening to Longing: “There’s got to be more.”
Each of the five awakenings are summarized with a prayer. Here’s the prayer for this first awakening,
“God, if you are real, make yourself real to me. Awaken in me the ability to see that you are what’s missing from my life.” [2]
Let me share with you one of the stories from the book that perfectly illustrate the way that we can find our way back to God through this awakening to longing.
Several years ago I had dinner with my friend and mentor Bob Buford. For much of his life, Bob ran a successful cable television company. After his son, Ross, tragically died, Bob came to a point in his life he called “Halftime.” He wrote a book by that title that tells how he moved from focusing on success to focusing on significance. What Bob said at dinner has stayed with me ever since: “One of people’s great fears is running out of money, but that’s not their greatest fear. Another significant fear people have is the fear of dying, but that’s not people’s greatest fear either.” He paused and said, “Deep down, our single greatest fear is to live a life of insignificance, to come to the end of our life and feel like we never really did anything that mattered. That is our greatest fear.”
Are you feeling like you are stuck in the same old, same old? Do you have a gut feeling that there’s got to be more? Author and theologian Frederick Buechner points us in the right direction when he says, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” [3]
2. Awakening to Regret: “I wish I could start over.”
“God if you are real, make yourself real to me. Awaken in me the possibility that with you I could start over again.” [4]
In this second section of the book, there is a compelling story about Scott and Kirsten, and the changes they chose to make after awakening to regret.
[Read more…] about 5 Ways to Find Your Way Back to God