He Looked For A City

And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Friend, what are you searching for? And how will you know when you’ve found it? A film released recently called ‘Jesus Revolution’ recounts the story of a movement that grabbed national attention in the late 1960s. Young people searching for answers had turned to drugs, free love, and rock music in rebellion to social norms; we usually refer to them as hippies. Not everyone was ‘into’ the communal living, or the lack of hygiene, that sometimes identified this group; but one thing held in common was a desire to find ‘the truth.’ Hallucinogenic trips into enlightenment crashed when the reality of addiction and overdose proved fatally short of the answers they sought. And yet in the midst of that desperate generation, some identified their seeking as a search for God.

Let’s consider another seeker, Abraham, who set out in search of a promise. While living in the midst of idolatrous people, he heard the call of God to leave his city behind and set out on a journey to acquire a land God promised him as his own. He didn’t know where that was going, but he journeyed in faith believing what was promised to him. When he arrived in Canaan the promise was reiterated, and yet, he never actually took possession of any part of it. His search continued while he lived as a foreigner in that land for “Abraham was confidently looking for a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.”

Whatever you are ‘into’, Friend, don’t mistake the yearning of your heart and think that it will be satisfied by the attainment of any tangible earthly thing. Even if you hold to the thought that ‘the best things in life aren’t things’, be sure that your searching and longings are a search for God himself. Take this admonition from Psalm 37 as your promise and call to begin your journey; “Trust in the Lord, and do good, dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

Read: Heb 11:8-10 

Listen: Haven’t Seen It Yet