SEEKING GOD

(from Rule for a new Brother)

You want to seek God with all your life,
and love Him with all your heart.
But you would be wrong
if you thought you could reach Him.
your arms are too short, your eyes are too dim,
your hearts and understanding too small.

To seek God means first of all
to let yourself be found by Him.
He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He is the God of Jesus Christ.
He is your God, not because He is yours
but because you are His.

To choose God is to realize that you are known and loved
in a way surpassing one can imagine,
loved before anyone had thought of you
or spoken your name.

To choose God means giving yourself up to Him in faith.
Let your life be built on this faith as on an invisible foundation.
Let yourself be carried by this faith like a child in its mother's womb.

And so, don't talk too much about God
but live in the certainty that He has written your name
on the palm of His hand.
Live your human task in the liberating certainty
that nothing in the world can separate you from God's love for you.

In Jesus of Nazareth God shows in a special way
how urgently He seeks for you,
and how entirely He has committed Himself to your happiness.

In Jesus of Nazareth one person shows
how completely we can belong to God
how much freedom and humility,
how much courage and self-forgetfulness one can possess
when one has been found by God and has surrendered to Him.
In Jesus there is also a future for you
as you go By His road through sin and death
towards fellowship and love, unfailing glory and life.

In faith you will recognize Him in the works of His hands,
and above all in us, made in His image and likeness,
and most clearly of all in the love which is Jesus.

But even if you receive no sign, no words from Him,
you will still recognize Him.
His very absence is full of the mystery of his greatness.
It can help you not seek and serve some image of Him
you yourself have created.

So never let yourself lose heart but go on seeking Him
In everything, in everybody –
They are all pledges that you will finally meet Him
Work Hard to know Him face to face.

For as sure as the dawn in His coming,
Certain as the latter rains.
If you abide in love, You will abide in God
And not wander anymore in darkness.

Then live in joyfulness and hope,
Un-anxious, without any trace of fear,
At peace with yourself and the world,
In ceaseless reverence and thanks.
Because God’s love for you endures forever.