Some of the top Google searches this week include basketball wives, Arlington National Cemetery, mojito recipes, above ground pools, pawn stars, portable air conditioners, potato salad, and jet ski. Perhaps you prefer Bing or another search engine. What questions have you asked recently? Have you trusted the answers?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, we didn’t have access to vast information the way we do today. We used encyclopedias (the ones printed in bound books) for research. We watched the skies for signs of changing weather (okay,the tv weatherman helped, too). We learned a lot from people around us. We built relationships, and as we determined who we could trust, we asked others to teach us.

We had less access to information but discerned truth from falsehoods more actively. In this age of technology, giving us easy access to extensive information, I wonder how frequently we search for information instead of truth.

There’s a difference. Information can be truthful, but information isn’t inherently truthful. When you ask a search engine a question, are you looking for information or truth?

The problem arises when we argue that truth is relative, depending on who is seeking and why.

When truth is assumed relative, nothing is reliable. There’s no difference between fact and opinion, good and evil, real and imaginary. Questions of purpose, personhood, and faith appear to be unessential. Purpose, faith, and life itself seems to float in air – with no firm foundation. Do they even exist?

When we become information – driven instead of truth-driven, we don’t change reality as much as we might think we do. We kid ourselves into thinking we’re much more powerful than we are. We don’t define ourselves, our world, or the reality of either. We don’t – and can’t – change truth. There is foundational truth in life, and there’s a search engine you can use to seek it.

God.

I’m not saying you can’t access some accurate information using search engines such as Google and Bing, but when you search God, you’ll always find truth. It’s a different sort of search. It’s not instantaneous. It’s often a journey of one question leading to another and another. You’ll often reveal pieces of truth and continue to fit new pieces as you search more.

Searching God isn’t as easy as using a search engine, because it’s based in a relationship. Relationships are ongoing, challenging, developing.

I’d rather have a relationship filled with effort but also filled with truth than an impersonal, brief, uncertain interaction. I want to invest as I search. What about you? Do you want to search passively or actively?

God, you are my God. I search for you. I thirst for you like someone in a dry, empty land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1