Dear Friend, You’re Already Found

“What is it that keeps you from looking for God?”

When I heard this question in a sermon last week, I had just seen an excellent live performance of Dear Evan Hansen a mere 12 hours before. If you’re one of the many who have seen this show, you know the song that’ll be in your head for days: “You Will Be Found” (lyric video here).

The main character in this musical, Evan Hansen, is a high school student who has social anxiety and great difficulty fitting in. He feels awkward and out of place most of the time. During the course of the show, he struggles greatly with the idea of being found—not necessarily because he feels lost, but because he feels invisible. So I suppose that the theme is not just about being found, but being seen. And really, aren’t they just two sides of the same coin?

Evan has no true friends, so when he sings these lyrics, they’re especially poignant:

Dear Evan Hansen is—no surprise here—a very secular show (I’ll rate it PG-13, but definitely pushing R for language and adult themes). It packs an emotional wallop without feeling too manipulative. People bring tissues to this show because even though not all of us are the social outcasts that Evan is during his high school years, almost everyone can identify with his need to be seen, heard, and known. Being “found” is one aspect of this very human, very universal need.

God knows this about us. In fact, he created us with this exact thing in mind.

Our church has been working through a series about theophanies—instances in the Bible where God makes a physical appearance in one form or another. During last week’s sermon, the tables were turned. Rather than hearing about how God shows himself to us, we were asked to consider what keeps us from looking for him.

The question in the sermon, “What is it that keeps you from looking for God?” was the exact question that I wanted to ask Evan Hansen.

Whether we admit it or not, if we’re at all introspective about our lives, we all know we are lost. No matter how successful we are, or how happy we are, at some point we desperately want to be found. People love the song “You Will Be Found” because it gives hope: we will be found! By … someone? Hmm, who will that someone be?

Who will carry us, as Evan says in his song? When we reach up, who will grab us so that we can rise again, even when we’re broken? Will it be the perfect spouse? The ideal friend? A counselor or therapist? A selfless parent or dutiful offspring?

Who will find us?

The song’s answer (actually, the entire show’s answer) isn’t ultimately satisfying. Evan is pondering the right question, but the conclusion he comes to is vague: “If you only look around, you will be found,” he says. Sure, it rhymes, but is it really offering a lasting solution, or any solution at all?

The only solution that lasts, the only answer that’s unchanging and dependable, is that God is who we’re looking for, and that it’s God who finds us. God is actually always showing up for us, whether we look for him or not. He’s always waiting and he’s always there, right where he said he would be: in his word (the Bible) and in his church (other believers).

The photo at the top of this post shows Matthew 2:1-12—the same passage we were looking at in church when the preacher asked, “What is it that keeps you from looking for God?” Here’s the connection that the sermon drew: In this well-known Bible story, wise men from the East seek Jesus by following a star, and we naturally think, “They’re trying to find Jesus!” But there’s something else going on, something even more important. It wasn’t just the wise men who found Jesus … it was God who first found the wise men. It was God who compelled them to seek the Christ child, and who gave them the “sign” (the star) to do so. The message for us today is that those who seek God will discover that they’ve already been found. The big question is, what keeps us from seeking him?

It’s not a new question. In the late AD 300s, Augustine wrote in his Confessions: “You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.”

Augustine sought the Lord outside of himself—in the people, places, and things that God himself had created, but none of that satisfied. He realized that God was already with him and working in him. God’s presence is what caused Augustine to seek him in the first place. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord,” he writes, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Restlessness. Lostness. Invisibility. All common human conditions, all with the same, single answer.

The truth is that we’re looking for God. The answer is that we can see him, and find him, in Jesus.

Sometimes those of us who are already believers will think, “Oh, those verses in the Bible about ‘seek and you will find’ (like Matthew 7:7)—those are for people who don’t yet believe.” But Christian, these aren’t just evangelistic verses, meant to draw unbelievers to Christ. They’re also meant for those of us who have been walking with Jesus for a very long time. Even the strongest Christian is susceptible to feeling lost, or restless, or invisible. We can all fall into self-pity or feelings of shame or regret. God may at times seem very far away and we may feel that we’ve been abandoned or forgotten.

But he’s right where he always said he would be. In his word (the Bible), in his church (other believers), and ready to meet us in prayer. You’ve already been found.

The real question is, are you seeking him? If not, “What is it that keeps you from looking for God?”