2025’s Digging out of Spiritual Desperation

It’s a fascinating story from the 1988 earthquake that almost flattened Armenia. This deadly tremor killed over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. A father rushed to his son’s school during the earthquake’s confusion. When he arrived, he discovered the building was flat as a pancake. Standing there looking at what remained of the school, the father remembered his promise to his son, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!” Tears began to fill his eyes. It looked hopeless, but he could not take his mind off his promise. Remembering that his son’s classroom was in the back right corner of the building, the father rushed there and started digging through the rubble. As he was searching, other grieving parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: “My son! “my daughter!” They tried to pull him off of what was left of the school, saying: “It’s too late!” “They’re dead!” “You can’t help!” “Go home!” Even a police officer and a firefighter told him he should go home. To everyone who tried to stop him, he said, “Are you going to help me now?” They did not answer him, and he continued digging for his son stone by stone. He needed to know: “Is my boy alive or dead?” The man dug for eight hours, twelve, twenty-four, and thirty-six. Finally, in the thirty-eighth hour, he heard his son’s voice as he pulled back a boulder. He screamed his son’s name, “ARMAND!” and a voice answered him, “Dad? It’s me, Dad!” Then the boy added these priceless words, “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they would also be saved. You promised that, Dad. ‘No matter what,’ you said, ‘I’ll always be there for you!’ And here you are, Dad. You kept your promise!”

What would it take in 2025 for you to grow completely frantic, much like Armand’s father, in search of hearing Someone’s voice? What would it take for you to desperately dig underneath Scripture’s pages, as opposed to piles of rubble, hour after hour, stone upon stone, whatever it took, to unearth what you’ve so desperately longed for? What lengths would you go to uncover the richest intimacy you’ve never experienced? What price would you be willing to pay?

Something profound would transpire; the word seismic would not be an overstatement if you were to obey what God tells you with equal fervor to the story above. Was it not God Himself, after all, who promised, “‘If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you’ declares the Lord.” (Jer. 29:14) King David, for one, took this promise of God at His word in Ps. 27:8: “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘I shall seek Your face oh Lord.'”

But unlike King David, I fear we’ve abandoned such searches from places of spiritual desperation. Despite cultural and moral catastrophes that confront us all around, lethargy to the stirrings of God comes across as no big deal. We’re satisfied being wholly dependent upon one another rather than the promises of God. We rely on strangers to dig Scripture’s trenches for us: preachers, podcasts, and live streams readily do the trick, or so it seems, rather than rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. Even worse, we appear indifferent, which is the most troublesome indictment of all—perhaps symptomatic of us settling to find God with great ease, which could explain the mess we now find ourselves. Maybe it is not God we have discovered after all.

However, in 2025 (and this is very bright “however”), it doesn’t have to be that way. According to Acts 17:27, “He,” meaning the God of creation, “is not far from each one of us.” But contained in that same verse is a catch: “God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him.” Jesus, I believe, delights in being sought after and ultimately found. Closely resembling, as theologian Meister Eckhart wrote, “a Person who clears His throat while hiding and so gives Himself away.” Jesus is a marvelous treasure waiting to be unearthed! The question becomes: When will you start digging?

Jesus said, for those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

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By George Shamblin Book News, Family & Friends, Uncategorized 0 Comments