Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.
Grant me to know and understand, Lord, which comes first. To call upon you or to praise you? To know you or to call upon you? Must we know you before we can call upon you? Anyone who invokes what is still unknown may be making a mistake. Or should you be invoked first, so that we may then come to know you? But how can people call upon someone in whom they do not yet believe? And how can they believe without a preacher?
But scripture tells us that those who seek the Lord will praise him, for as they seek they find him, and on finding him they will praise him. Let me seek you then, Lord, even while I am calling upon you, and call upon you even as I believe in you; for to us you have indeed been preached. My faith calls upon you, Lord, this faith which is your gift to me, which you have breathed into me through the humanity of your Son and the ministry of your preacher.
Augustine speaks to a duality found in the human relationship with God. On one hand, the human mind realizes that, if there is a God, he must be infinitely more powerful than the World. We are awestruck by the might of our Creator. Because of this, however, we are also cognizant of how pathetic this makes us. We become aware that even the best men and women are woefully impotent on their own; they have no talents and no possessions accepted those which have been provided by the Lord. We realize that we our completely dependent on God's Providence, like babies who are completely under the care and protection of their mothers.
What's more, we are marked with the stain of our failings and carry the odor of our mortality ever before us. No person can, of their own doing, wipe clean their own slate. It seems to me that people choose one of two actions when they confront their sinful state. Some chose the comfort of wallowing in the drudgery of this imperfect world. They fear the leap of faith, and so are condemned to a life devoid of rest. They move from place to place, from activity to activity, never quenching that aching for fulfillment that comes from the very core of one's being. This life has its allures. Since a person who chooses this life chooses this world as their home, they are perhaps more comfortable, more familiar, with this world. This world, created perfect by God but deformed by human rebellion, either allows us to live lives of selfishness or challenges us to live lives of holiness.
Granted, there are many people who do many good things for others without ever recognizing the holy presence of God. They engage in acts of charity and service, but their actions are not to glorify God, but rather to glorify themselves. Their good works are meant to assuage their own discomfort with living ungrateful lives. They act out of compassion for their fellow man or woman, but fail to acknowledge who molded that compassionate heart out of the dust of the Earth. I am more saddened by these non-believers than others because they are so close to salvation. Only stubbornness or lack of faith cause them to resist the 5 ton elephant in the room: our God! Augustine implores such people to seek first, and the Lord will reward you for your respond to His call for you to rest in Him.
Jesus said Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for you. (Mt 7:7). If you lack the faith you feel you need to recognize God as Lord, seek Him and He shall become manifest to you. Throughout time, God has done marvelous deeds when people offer Him something of themselves with which to work. Why not open your heart to the Lord? What is there to lose but our restlessness? What is there not to gain?
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