Is it the job of a teacher to present facts? Imparting information is one aspect of teaching, but only one. Students should be on a journey of learning and discovery, but shouldn’t this be true of everyone, including teachers? They should be in the process of learning themselves. Consider the teachers from your own experience that you enjoyed the most. Would they be better described as guides on the path of learning, even as they walk it themselves? You may not hold the title of teacher yourself, but you can still function as one even if you don’t know everything. Describe your own path into the mystery of the faith to those who will hear you. 

You understand the concept of my presence and this is available to you whenever you seek it even though you can’t see me. Do you know that you have a presence yourself? Everyone does. It is expressed in various degrees as you have already seen. For you know people whose mind is elsewhere, who are absent, even though you are in front of them face to face. You also know people who are full of themselves and their presence is overpowering and wearisome. Don’t you appreciate those people who are fully present to you in a gracious way, who give you their full attention and involvement? They appreciate the same quality in you, but this isn’t something that comes automatically. Seek me and learn of me to be single-minded and have the mind of Christ.

Have you heard of seeker sensitive churches? My word speaks favorably of seeking, but what type of seekers are these churches structured for? Have you found such services to be comfortable, friendly, inoffensive, and short? That may have a superficial appeal in attracting outsiders, but real seekers are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. This image is of powerful motivators that give a relentless and focused desire for fulfillment. Those who are hungry will go where they have to and bear any hardship to get food. Are you such a seeker yourself? This is the type of seeker who finds. 

Does it bother you that you can’t see me? Have you found that some people’s voices are more distinctive than their appearance, so you weren’t aware that they were nearby until you heard the familiar sound of their voice? Stunt doubles in movies have no spoken lines because their voice would betray their false identity. And so it is that you can know my presence by my voice rather than by visual recognition. In the most intimate of relationships there is a real sense of presence even when no words are spoken. Behold I am with you always, and you have my promise that you will know my voice.