Seek the Lord - Psalm 14:2

One Sunday, many years ago, I walked onto the church platform, took my place behind the pulpit, and started laughing. I tried to stop, but every time I looked down at the congregation, I started up again. I saw people look at each other with concerned expressions. Had the pastor lost it? But I couldn’t control myself.

What started me laughing was the sight of my two sons.

Typically, our youngest daughter was in the nursery and our other three children, my wife, and I sat in a pew near the front on the left-hand side.

Midway through the service, I would go up and announce that the youngest children were dismissed to go to the Children’s Worship Service before leading the pastoral prayer. The children would exit down the center aisle to the narthex where they were met by the children’s ministry staff. Our younger son was included in this group. My wife and two older children remained in the pew.

On this Sunday, our younger daughter was in the nursery as usual, but so was my wife. One Sunday a month she volunteered in the nursery, and this was her week. And our older daughter, who would usually be in charge of her brothers when my wife was gone, was not with us either. She had spent the night with a friend and was attending a different church with her friend’s family.

So, I gave our older son the job of making sure that his younger brother made it successfully to the Narthex when I announced that it was time for the Children’s Worship Service. He was a very earnest child, and he was serious about fulfilling his assignment. He would make sure his brother went where he needed to be.

After the last worship song, I left the pew, ascended the three stairs to the platform, stood behind the pulpit, announced that the children were dismissed to the Children’s Worship Service, looked down on the congregation, and lost it. I burst out laughing and couldn’t stop myself.

What I saw was my younger son clinging to the back of the pew while his brother, standing in the aisle, with his arms wrapped around his brother’s middle pulled and pulled and pulled on him. He pulled so hard that his brother’s legs were off the ground, his body parallel to the floor.

It seems my younger son had decided that he wanted to stay in the worship service. He didn’t want to go to the Children’s Worship Service that day. He had a Bible character coloring book and colored pencils and he thought he’d be fine staying where he was, which was okay with me. But he hadn’t told me that. My older son was determined to carry out his duty and make sure his brother went to the Children’s Worship Service.

Seeing them there like that, the younger one clinging to the pew because he wanted to stay in worship, the older one with a look of determination on his face, pulling and tugging with all his might to force his brother to go to the Children’s Worship Service struck me has hilarious.

It took some time for me to compose myself and call out to my older son and let him know that it was okay for his brother to stay where he was.

I thought about that scene this morning when reading Psalm 14:2, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.”

John Calvin wrote that God is pictured here, seated on his throne from which he “casts his eye on all sides, for the purpose of knowing what is done among men,” to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God (John Calvin, Heart Aflame, 28).

Calvin continued that “a good and righteous life depends upon our being governed and directed by the light of understanding… [T]he commencement of integrity and uprightness of life consists in an enlightened and sound mind.” This reminds me of what Paul wrote in Romans 12:2, that we are renewed by the transformation of our minds through which we can discern what is the good and perfect will of God.

How is it that we can get that understanding, to have our minds renewed? David said it is by seeking God. Calvin wrote, “David defines what true understanding is, namely, that it consists in seeking God; by which he means, that unless men devote themselves wholly to God, their life cannot be well ordered.”

So then, let us seek God, with our whole hearts. Let us seek God with the kind of determination and intensity that my son showed in trying to make sure he fulfilled his responsibility to get his brother to the Children’s Worship Service.

Much love, Barry