THE QUEST

This is the light in my hallway that greets me early in the morning

Many of us feel like we are on a spiritual quest for light and deeper understanding.  We do this in many ways.

.Yesterday our quest  was to find out what was wrong with dad.  So off we go together dad to the doctor and me to visit at Laurel Place the lady I had been visiting at the Newton Nursing home.  I had finally found out her last name and where she was.

  Dad dropped me up to do my visiting at Laurel place while he went to the doctor.

Once there he refused to put on a gown  because he felt too sick so did not get a full check-up.()  I will have to remember this trick. )  He and the doctor had a nice chat and he did listen to his chest and look in his throat.   He has some antibiotics and cough medicine now but does not know what the doctor thinks he has.

I am a little annoyed at them both. 

Meanwhile I figured I had lots of time to visit and we where enjoying a nice chat when I told her I had to leave.    My sweet dear friend decides I should take her home to the Nursing Home where she thinks she should be.  I explained that she need more care and I could not handle her wheel chair to put her in my car.  She still insisted.  So I suggested we find some cookies and juice for her and I told her she should stay just one more night.  Leaving took longer than expected.

By this time dad had been having a long wait in the entrance and finally had some one phone up to the third floor to say he was there. This really helped because I could tell her I definitely had to go

It was raining very hard as dad dropped me off at the store to get his  prescription to the store to be filled.  They were a little busy so I came home for a coffee and waited a half hour before going back.  It was still raining very hard and getting very windy.

When I got there I stood around waiting for over 30 minutes because they had to contact the doctor about the cough medicine.  I arrive home to find dad getting ready to come and find me. 

Many people over the ages have quested at the doors of the church for answers about God.

One man, George Fox (1624 - 1691) a cobbler of humble devotion abandoned his job and family to search for God.  In 1643 England was in a social and religious upheaval.  He wandered from one religion to another seeking answers about theology and church order.  He felt that religion was distancing him from God, both Anglicanism and Calvinism.

Feeling hopeless and very discouraged he had a dream one night in which a voice spoke to him saying, "There is one even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition" and upon hearing these words his heart filled with joy.

"Christ, the great heavenly prophet, the true light came into this world , to bring light into every heart by believing in Jesus.  He gathered many followers and they became known as the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers.

This was very radical at this time because the church and the scripture had become the authority.

Later John Westley, a university student, who became a missionary priest found he suffered from "indifference, dullness and coldness and frequent lapses into sin."  ?As he was reading Luther write about the change God works in the heart he felt his heart strangely warmed.  He felt that this light of Christ had changed his sinful nature by renewing his heart.  He would be the founder of the Methodist Church.

Others have found answers in the Unitarian church where  intellectual reasoning was very important.

Ralph Waldo Emerson believed God was found through nature when the inner person becomes aware of the beauty of nature and finds that beauty speaking to his heart.

From this we gather that the world is full of spiritual diversity  and that each one of us has a quest of our own..
For me Jesus will always be a compelling figure worthy of both imitation and love, which leads to caring for others with compassion and grace.
 
I should be doing my Bible study lesson but I am not.  I have two meetings.  First U.C.W. and then our study group starts right after.  I enjoy both groups one more service centered and the other more study centered..

For me the quest continues.  I quite like that word!