The first line of today’s Scriptures contains important biblical advice: “Seek the Lord where He may be found, call on Him while He is near.” The line corrects a flaw in our design that many among us exploit. The flaw is necessary, however, because God desires us to be free. To create us as free people capable of immense good, God tolerates a potential problem. It starts with our senses. Everything we sense seems to come to us. Sound comes to our ears. Sight comes to our eyes. Smell, taste, and feeling come to us. We get a false impression: that we are the center of things, that the universe revolves around us, that we are what really counts. When we calculate God’s existence, we compound the mistake by thinking God must respond accordingly, that God must favor us. Every good thing, then, should come to us—we think.

           When bad things happen—pain or suffering—or when people who differ from us rub shoulders with us, when others who live differently prosper, we feel as if God has abandoned us. Some get mad at God. There is a name for that feeling. It is resentment. We resent it when others who differ prosper; we resent God when things don’t go right. Toward the end of today’s Gospel, the people hired first come to the landowner full of resentment.

           This past summer, I had my knees replaced. After both surgeries, I went to a rehabilitation hospital to learn to take care of myself again. From start to finish, I met great people—doctors, nurses, therapists. While I was in rehab for the second time, I met a fellow patient struggling with depression. I think he was older than I am, maybe in his 80s. He rode his bike almost every day. He fell off it, really messing up his leg. He was upset with God. Why would God do this to him? I thought about Scripture: Seek God where God is found, not necessarily where we want or even expect God to be. Seek God where God is found. So, I told him I think he has God’s plan wrong. God creates us with brains to think, hearts to love, with guts—courage—to navigate this world. God creates us to be free, but with tools to navigate the good and the tough times. God expects us to create a good life through it all. If we succeed, we gain happiness, satisfaction and contentment that we have constructed good lives, that we have built pleasant homes, that we have lived well, even when we fall off the bike.

            Everyone has downtime. Everyone suffers, has pain, gets sick. Not everyone falls off bikes because some of us quit riding as we got older. But everyone suffers. God’s plan remains. He gives us brains, hearts, and guts to get through it all. I asked my fellow patient to look around: He has skilled surgeons who put him back together. He has fine therapists who help him make progress. He has a supportive, caring family and good friends. Brains in abundance, love and care, guts to push through. God is all around him, God is with him; God is in him.

           Back to the design flaw. Yes, too many exploit it. In a new book on evil, philosopher Susan Neiman says this self-centeredness is the root cause of the evil of our day. I think she is right. Too many exploit the flaw and think of themselves as the center of everything.

           Find God where God is at. God gave us our senses to draw us out of ourselves and to participate in the wonder of creation. Rather than everything coming to us, God’s design has us venturing outside ourselves to embrace creation and to become participants with a diverse humankind. Two quick examples: on the way home test your eyesight to see how wonderful creation is. Try to count how many shades of green God created to please your eyes. And then, consider our responsibility to maintain the beauty. When you eat lunch, consider all the strangers who processed, shipped, sold, and prepared your meal. And think of our role in justice and charity to ensure each of those people shares in God’s benefits. If we go out of ourselves seeking otherness, we will discover a generous God who invites us into His generous spirit.

           The God of Generosity is at the core of all that is. We must learn to appreciate the gifts given to us and the gifts given to others. For that, we need to get beyond ourselves, to go out of ourselves. When we begin to contemplate the amazing wonder of life lived in a universe of immense scope and overwhelming beauty, when we begin to take in all that diverse humanity has done over time, all that the various cultures have built, we will become gracious and generous as God is gracious and generous. Seek the Lord where He may be found.