Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “Let God be exalted” (Psalm 70:4).
In 1998 the French archaeologist Franck Goddio mounted an expedition in the Bay of Aboukir, hunting for two Egyptian cities, Menouthis and Heraklion, which ancient writings show used to exist at the mouth of the Nile. Employing a nuclear resonance magnetometer, an x-ray-like instrument dangling from the back of the boat, Goddio and his exploration team scanned the harbor, back and forth, back and forth, making a map of the sea floor.
To their delight, the magnetometer patterned two wide areas that eventually yielded the sites of submerged buildings, temples, large fallen columns, sphinxes and clay jugs that once stored wine. In addition, steel fragments, written records, sculptures and statutes were located along with abandoned gold coins and jewelry. All this archaeological booty lies buried beneath two feet of sand and 21 feet of Mediterranean waters.
None of the coins found in Menouthis were minted after A.D. 740, which leads to speculations that whatever disaster destroyed the two cities occurred sometime soon after this date. Whatever catastrophe swamped the cities—earthquakes or flooding or a combination of both—the archaeological records of those civilizations has been preserved for a later generation of historical specialists to uncover and analyze.
Consequently, scavengers scour the oceans looking for ancient shipwrecks with unplundered treasures. The sea hides plenty of submerged sailing vessels with much of their cargo intact. The Encyclopedia of Australian Shipwrecks contains over 10,000 entries. The hunt for drowned treasure is so intense. “The Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987” clarifies to which states boats discovered in which waters belong and how their archaeological, historic and monetary values should be distributed and managed.
No matter what is being scavenged, an endemic hunting instinct dwells in each human. There is a thrill to finding something we have been seeking. Everyone loves to find that something special. The younger generations boast about what they have bought or sold on eBay. Financiers brag about “beating the stock market.” Three high school teachers I know devote many Saturdays and vacation days scanning beaches with radar devices, looking for treasure. And, when we have been hunting for something in particular (a new dress or a new car), and we finally purchase it for a good price, we just have to tell somebody.
The thrill of the hunt can drive us to spend hours searching for that special find, as my oldest son, Randall, does when bird-watching. One September morning he invited me to go with him on a bird walk with the DuPage Birding Club. Along the way we heard the cry of a yellow-billed cuckoo and sighted many other species—two roosting black-crowned night herons, lots of cat-birds, a few red-eyed vireos, a handful of warblers and dozens of cedar waxwings sunning in the trees.
No matter what it is you are seeking—treasures on the ocean’s floor, designer labels in a resale shop, rare birds in the lofty treetops, pennies in the grass, the contents of a list for a teenager’s scavenger hunt, wildflowers in a spring woods or first editions in a used book store—there is a thrill when you find it. That same delicious anticipation, that same excitement should be present when we hunt for God.
Are you excited about what you might find? Let me ask this another way: Are you staying awake to God? “But we who would be born again indeed,” writes George MacDonald, “must wake our souls unnumbered times a day.”
Let us discover again the thrill of hunting for God, a most profitable activity with eternal consequences. Let us face our lives in the right direction. Let us look for Him in the four ways that we have discovered are so helpful in the finding, the first of which is any obvious answer to prayer.
We ask, God answers. And, once again, we spy God!
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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.
Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.
Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.
For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.
Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.