Whose Initiative?

In his high impact book, Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby asserts that God seeks a love relationship with us that is real and personal. Again, people who would label themselves as "Christian" may not find anything unusual or noteworthy about these words. Yet this affirmation offers enormous implication. If this is true, it reverses the general approach of most religious expressions. Throughout history, human religion most often creates systems in which human beings take the initiative to please their gods. Seeking the favor, attention, blessing, or good will of a deity, human creatures offer sacrifices, pray in certain formulas, worship certain ways, behave according to certain codes, or whatever it takes to create an interaction with the god that turns out favorable toward humanity. We are the seekers, and God, the gods, whoever or whatever are the one(s) sought.

I believe those who would claim the name of Jesus and those who would lead Jesus-followers must, of necessity, embrace a different starting point. God is the seeker, and we are the ones sought. God takes the initiative and acts on it. Jesus is God taking that initiative. The very fact that any one of us turn God-ward demonstrates that God is already acting.

This changes everything. We no longer search frantically for an illusive, distant deity. We accept the radical truth that a personally involved God is already at work, and that this God's work involves reaching to us. This shifts the question from, "How do I find God?" to "What is God doing, how is God inviting me to join in, and how does God want me to respond?" If God is love, then as the answers to the latter question emerges, we will experience the love of a seeking God.

The human tendency is to keep the divine/human initiative to ourselves. It's a control thing. That's why Jesus-following keeps remaining radical, in spite of 2,000 years of human history trying to domesticate it. It assumes God has the initiative, and we must respond in radical faith, trust, and obedience.

The water and the fishing have both been good these last three days. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.