30. When you seek anything of your own, you will never find God.

“Know that when you seek anything of your own, you will never find God, because you do not seek God purely. You are seeking something along with God, and you are acting just as if you were to make a candle out of God in order to look for something with it. Once one finds the things one is looking for, one throws the candle away. This is what you are doing.” ~ Meister Eckhart

This one is a twister we will have to step through carefully because on initial reading it does not seem to make sense and the point is not easy to intuit.

When we seek anything on our own we will never find God. God created us to search for him but in order for him to reveal anything of himself, our search for him must be guided. He does so through the teaching authority of the church which helps us to search for him, to know what we are looking for and for whose we search. On our own we get distracted which directs our searching in places for where we cannot find him even though there is no where were he is not.

We seek things to fill holes within us things we mistake for God, material things or spiritual things that do not emanate from him. Meditation is one such example. The difference between meditation and meditative prayer is that prayer is focused on the relationship between God and ourselves. Meditation is a search for answers in places where no answers can be found. True peace, true value, true meaning, and true understanding can only come from God. To meditate with a connection to God is to attempt to use God as a candle only light the way to where we want to go rather than to be called to where we need.

Any search for meaning has to be conducted within the framework of our God, our creator and redeemer and saving spirit.