Kickball

I watched the Nooma video 'Kickball' the other day. Rob Bell's family goes to the mall, where his son wants a toy from one of the kiosks. Bell tries to explain to him that the toy will only get tangled and break and not bring the joy that he thinks it will. But his son is adamant, and Bell finally must pick him up and carry him away from the kiosk. Unknown to his son, Bell had already planned on going to the sporting goods store across the street after leaving the mall to buy his son a kickball. When they get there, he delights in being able to allow his son to choose the kickball of his heart's desire, the 'o-ange one'.

And Bell asks, How often do we want something only to find out that it wasn’t that great after all? Sometimes we ask God for things and if he doesn’t deliver right away, we start questioning whether God really understands or even cares. Do we really trust God? Do we trust that God is good and sees a bigger picture than we ever could? It’s easy to want what’s right in front of us, but maybe God knows what’s better for us, and sometimes we just can’t see it.

One of the verses tied into the video is the classic Jeremiah 29:11-14 that we've all read a million times. And in glancing through the discussion book that comes with the video, I skipped right past the verse, justifying in my mind that there was nothing new to learn from the 'I have plans for your future' speech that never seems to make me feel any better about life.

But then I looked a little closer. And the verse written out happened to be from the Message translation. And I read it. And I read it again. And again. And it took on new meaning for me. And this is not a comparison of one translation over another one, merely just the thought that maybe sometimes we need to see things that we've read hundreds of times in a new light, from a new perspective. Maybe we need to dig a little deeper. So here it is, my emphasis added:

"I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out — plans to take care of
you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed... You can count on it."

So I wonder, how do I go about 'getting serious about finding God'? What does that look like? What would my life look like if I truly sought that more than anything else I long for? What would the future entail?

And I also wonder if God is standing in the kickball aisle of the sporting goods store just waiting for me to get serious.