Where are you looking?

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path (Psalm 119:105, NLT).

A famous comedy skit by German comedian Karl Vallentin cleverly illustrates the folly of contemporary man's search for answers.

Imagine a dark stage illuminated by only a small circle of light on one side of the stage. The rest of the stage is dark. In the skit, the comic comes onto the stage. He paces around and around this lighted circle with a worried face. He’s searching for something.

After a while, a policeman joins him and asks what he has lost. "I've lost the key to my house," Vallentin answers. The policeman joins the hunt, but the search eventually appears useless. "Are you sure you lost it here?" asks the policeman. "Oh, no!" says Vallentin, pointing to a dark corner." "It was over there." "Then why are you looking for it here?" "There's no light over there," answers the comic.

Mankind, like Vallentin, is still looking in the wrong places for answers to its problems. People look to science, psychology, philosophy, politics, materialism, and all manner of places, but truth isn’t there.

Paul wrote: "Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ" (Colossians 2:8, NLT).

Human thinking has no answers to questions such as:

Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Where am I going when I die?

The answers are in God's holy, inspired Word, the Bible. Those who scoff at God's Word and do not believe it will never find the answers. Those who seek truth in God's Word will find their answers.

Referring to God's Words, the Bible says of itself, "They are life to those who find them..." (Proverbs 4:22, NIV). But in the immediately preceding passage, God says: "My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart..." (vs. 20-21).

We must pay attention to what God says, not let His words out of sight, and keep them within our hearts.

Karl Vallentin's car keys were in the dark, but he was foolishly looking in the light. It is just the reverse for us. Truth is in the light of God's Word. Most people are looking for it in the dark.

Pastor Mike