Right Here Waiting

In my previous post, “Take It to the Limit”, I may be guilty of suggesting that finding God is dependent on our effort.  Please do not misunderstand me, our effort is indeed quite important.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 2:26

If Christianity were based purely on our effort, it would be much the same as most other religions in the world.  The primary difference between Christianity and most other religions is the concept of God reaching out to man rather than the other way around.  Though our effort is a necessary and important component of a walk with God, His effort is infinitely more so.  As creator of the universe, God by definition must exist outside of the universe.  Is there any way that we as residents of the universe could interact with anything outside of the universe through our own initiative?  Of course not, that would be absurd.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

By necessity, God made the first move.  Since we were unable to bridge the gap between ourselves and Him, He did so for us.  Beyond simply making the first move, God goes further.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah 6:8

God asks us to be a partner in reaching others with His message.  In much the same way that Jesus was, we are tasked with going into the world to help those who are lost.  One question remains, why?  Why would the God of the universe desire to have a relationship with us?

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
John 4:23

Consider this for a moment; have you ever done something cool and wish that there had been someone around to see it?  God did too; God made the entire heartbreakingly beautiful, often savage, precise-as-clockwork and incomprehensibly large universe.  How cool is that?  Is it any surprise that He would long to have someone to share it with?  That's where we come in.  God is seeking worshipers.  He is not on some sort of universal ego trip; our worship is simply the result of an accurate acknowledgment of our position in relation to His.  When and if we gain this understanding of our status, worship is a perfectly legitimate and reasonable response.