ISO

by Susan Klein on August 04, 2021

“…if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Proverbs 2:3-6

I’m not very tech savvy, so when I first observed the letters, “ISO,” in a social media group, it took me a minute to figure out they stood for: “In search of.” Now I see them everywhere. “ISO a good plumber,” “ISO a good restaurant with gluten-free options,” “ISO ways to rid my garden of pests.” With the Internet at our fingertips, it’s fairly easy to find the things we seek or answers to our questions. However, we’ve come to know that not all information is reliable.

I recently did an Internet search to find out why my tomatoes are not ripening. I found several “expert opinions,” though no two were alike. So, is it because we’ve had too many days in a row with high heat? Is it because I’m not pruning enough? Am I pruning too much? Are the soil conditions right? I felt more confused after my search than before! All I could do was pick one suggestion and go with it! If what I tried didn’t work, I’d just pick another one. While that approach may be fine for tomatoes, it may not work for difficult life questions.

Many years ago, my friend had a personalized license plate that read, N-SRCH-F, short for: “in search of.” When I asked what she was searching for, she replied, “a career path, a life-mate, answers to life’s challenging questions like- why I exist…” She was hoping to find some, if not all of her answers at the college she was attending. Apparently she didn’t find them, as she attended three subsequent colleges, still “in search of.”

What I wanted to tell that friend is that some questions we just cannot find answers to outside of God’s Word. Many sources we turn to are flawed, they are created by humans who are flawed. Jesus was the only flawless, perfect man. He is the only One whose answers we can trust implicitly. Scripture tells us, “In the beginning was the Word (Christ the Word), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). If we have questions about life and love and relationships and authority and purpose… we need only look one place for answers. God has provided a concise sourcebook at our fingertips!  And if we still can’t find the answers we are looking for in His written word, all we have to do is ask. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who generously gives to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

What are you in search of? What source are you turning to? Comment below.

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