Looking for It

Looking for It (1,111)

April 9th, 2011

We were nearing the end of our conversation. It had been a good one. All at once, he introduced the “c” word—committee. He told me he would have to check with his committee to see if we could work out details about my proposed appearance at his church.

I don’t have any problem with committees, because if I did, I would probably be taken in front of the Council on Un-American Activities. For after all, committees are as much a part of American life as apple pie and Mom—and unfortunately, sometimes equally as tasteless and ineffective.

So I asked the question. “This committee you mentioned—what are they looking for?”

He was silent. At length he responded. “What do you mean?”

Well, let me tell you what I told him.

If you go into the forest looking for bears, you will never hear the birds sing or see the squirrels scampering. If you go to the lake looking for pollution, you will never enjoy fishing. Much of the success or failure of what happens in our lives is determined by what we are looking for when we set out on our quest.

My problem with committees is very simple. Usually the best way to prove you are valuable to any group of people is to come up with a reason—although erroneous—of why something should not be done. Often when this is presented, people stand back in awe because they hadn’t considered such an eventuality. No one joins a committee because they want to be positive or God forbid, become a “yes man or woman.”

So just the process of forming a committee is a decision to safeguard against any possibility for the unusual to seep into our planning. Of course truthfully, it is the unusual that always brings the blessing.

So what am I saying? I am saying that committees are naturally faulted with the attribute of prohibiting blessing in favor of caution.

So I wanted to share with you on this day what I believe in my life that I do when I am out looking for “it.”

1. Unlike Solomon, I do believe there is something new under the sun. I insist that there is a better way, even as I’m enjoying a very good rendition. It is enlightening, refreshing and rejuvenating.

2. I do not look for God in humanity, to find myself walking away in frustration over the absence of the Divine in my world. Rather, I look for humanity in God. Didn’t He say we were created in His image? So there should be some semblance of our likeness in His being and thinking.

3. I don’t like “no.” And if I say no, I like to say it quickly, without emotion or prejudice. But I would love to believe there is a reason for “yes” to be inserted because it is only in using “yes” that I open the door to newness of life instead of repetition.

4. I read the gospel to find the confirmation of what I already see in life. I may be the only person in the world who will be honest and say that there are things in the Bible I do not understand or appreciate, so rather than fussing about them or debating them, I ignore them. I am not questioning their authenticity nor their divine inspiration; I am merely admitting that I am dumb to their value and without understanding of their usefulness to a human earth journey.

5. I’m also looking for “it” in the sense that I do not want an understanding of history laced with dates, events and idealism, but rather, a telling of the past which will enhance our present—a rendition filled with the reality of human struggle and emotion. It doesn’t bother me that Abraham Lincoln did not really want to free the slaves, but saw it as a political maneuver to keep from destroying the union. That little piece of veracity only shows me how God can work with us—even when we’re only looking into the power of this moment.

6. And finally, I am looking for “it” in life in order to believe that there is always something more than I know, better than I think, more practical than I am performing and more spiritual than I have acquired. So each man and woman is my teacher and each child I meet is an example of the mind-set of the angels. Let me put it to you bluntly. You could be smarter than me. You could be smarter than us. So we’re not going to put it to a vote, basing it on the moodiness of the present quorum.

So, my dear friend, feel free to take it back to a committee, which is filled with people so mature they believe they can access every plausibility from their rolodex of experience.

No—please give me human souls who are looking for “it”—the next really good reason to try to do better.