The Seeker

Nearly forty years ago, I received a package in the mail from a dear friend. Inside was a pen-and-ink drawing of an eagle in flight against a mountainous backdrop. Surrounding the eagle was this inscription:

A man will know when he is chosen by God for a life of quest.

The restless urge within him is an eagle in his breast.

Let him turn from seeking and the eagle will eat his heart.

Rest?

There is no rest for the seeker with an eagle in his breast.

That picture has hung on the wall of my office since the day it arrived.

The inscription is unsettling to some, but the true seeker—one with an eagle in his breast—understands. The restlessness I sense in my own heart has nothing to do with dissatisfaction with my Lord Jesus. It has everything to do with the reality that there is more of Him to be known than I presently know and that I am desperate to know it.

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass, darkly” (KJV). Our clearest spiritual sight is still partial; there is always more yet to be discovered. This restlessness is rooted in a holy urgency to continue the journey—a journey that leads higher up and further in, toward a deeper discovery of God and His infinite heart.

As lovers of Jesus, we must resist the temptation to settle down with our motors idling, content to remain safely inside the harbor rather than launching out into the great depths of the heart of God. Jesus Himself said:

“Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7–8).

One of my heroes of the faith is the late Dietrich Bonhoeffer—Germany’s pastor, prophet, martyr, and spy. Bonhoeffer took a courageous stand against the Third Reich and the leadership of Adolf Hitler, a stand that cost him dearly. He was imprisoned and ultimately hanged for his perceived crimes against the Nazi regime.

In the Bonhoeffer biography, Radical Integrity by Michal Van Dyke. There is a poem that  Bonhoeffer wrote while in prison—words that speak powerfully about seekers:

The seeker watches and waits.He is blind to every force that comes between him and God.Only one thing is of importance to him.He wants to see God. He wants to hear God.He wants to know God. He wants to serve God.He wants nothing else in this world like he wants God.

Psalm 73:25 captures the cry of the seeker’s heart: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

The word mediocre comes to English through French from the Latin mediocris, meaning “halfway up.” True seekers are not satisfied to remain halfway up the mountain. Sadly, seekers are often an enigma to those who are content with their present view—comfortable and settled, halfway up the mountain.