Awakening

Finding God

The phrase “finding God” or “I found Jesus” has always struck my ear in an uneasy way. How does one find something—or Someone—who was never truly absent?

Maybe we don't find God. Maybe we awaken to God.

Perhaps the spiritual journey is less about searching outside ourselves and more about discovering what has been quietly present all along—the presence of God beneath the noise, fear, ambition, distraction, and endless thinking of the human mind.

Scripture reminds us:

“Be still, and know that I am God.”
— Psalm 46:10

Notice that it doesn't say search harder. It says be still and know.

Time and time again, I have looked elsewhere for my salvation. I have searched through people, accomplishments, possessions, approval, control, and my own ability to figure life out. And time and time again, the human search has eventually disappointed me.

Yet God remained.

Jesus said:

“My kingdom is not of this world.”
— John 18:36

And He also said:

“The kingdom of God is within you.”
— Luke 17:21

Those words have become increasingly meaningful to me. We spend so much of our lives looking outward for something that requires us to first become quiet enough to recognize what God is doing within us.

We are travelers here. Scripture tells us that we are “foreigners and strangers on earth” who are “longing for a better country—a heavenly one.” — Hebrews 11:13,16.

That changes how I look at this life.

Maybe these years are not the entirety of our existence but one part of a much greater journey with God. Along the way, our souls are shaped through love, suffering, forgiveness, loss, joy, relationships, surrender, and grace.

And salvation itself points beyond the limitations of earthly life.

Jesus said:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
— John 11:25

If I believe God has no beginning and no end, why would I expect eternity to fit neatly inside the few decades I spend walking this earth?

If I believe in the resurrection of Jesus, then I must leave room for the mystery and promise that death is not simply an ending.

Paul wrote:

“What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:42

Perhaps what we call finding God is really the pulling away of the shade that has obscured our view.

Fear is a shade.

Ego is a shade.

Resentment is a shade.

Our need for control is a shade.

And sometimes the greatest shade of all is the incessant human mind demanding that it understand something that was never meant to fit entirely within human understanding.

The mind wants eternity explained.

The soul simply recognizes it.

Our minds try to squeeze eternity into a single frame of a movie that has no beginning and no end. We stare at one frame—this problem, this loss, this lifetime—and assume we're looking at the whole story.

But God sees the entire film.

Paul reminds us:

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:12

Maybe faith begins when I stop demanding to see the entire movie.

Maybe awakening begins when I realize God was present before I started searching, present while I wandered, present when I doubted, and present when I finally became still enough to notice Him.

So today, I am less interested in finding God.

I want to awaken to God.

To remove what blocks my view.

To quiet what competes for my attention.

To surrender my need to understand eternity and instead become fully present to the God who is here now.

Because perhaps the greatest spiritual discovery isn't that I finally found God.

It is realizing:

God was never lost.

I was simply learning how to see.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Quiet the part of me that believes I must search everywhere to find You. Remove the fear, ego, resentment, distractions, and worries that cloud my vision.

When my mind demands answers, teach my soul to trust.

When I become consumed by this temporary world, remind me that Your kingdom is greater than what my eyes can see and Your promises extend beyond what my mind can comprehend.

Help me awaken each day to Your presence—in the stillness, in other people, in creation, in my struggles, and within the deepest places of my soul.

I do not need to understand all of eternity today.

I only need enough faith to walk with You through this moment.

Pull back the shade, Lord.

Open my eyes.

You were never lost.

Help me see that You have been here all along.

Amen.