Solenoid

"But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29)

There are several questions that approach the issue regarding why it seems difficult to know God? Why does it not seem "so bad" to do things that are spoken of with great distaste from God through the prophets? Is every "not-so-bad" non-believer really headed for hell? Why are we required to search for Him with "all" our hearts and souls? Why so much work? Why would not "most," or even "some," be all that's required? There are several ways to voice this apparent inconsistency in character between a God desiring all men to know him (1 Timothy 2:4), and yet who requires so much.

I suspect a sufficient response may be described in terms of the operation of a solenoid: a small switch responsible for triggering a larger switch. A human choosing to drink alcohol in the presence of others can display this effect. If one wishes not to become sexually involved with one with whom there is mutual attraction, the choice to partake in a substance that decreases one's inhibitions may effect all other choices while under such a state. The former choice effects the latter. Similarly, when driving over sloped terrain: the possibility of stopping at the top of the hill may diminish as one increases in speed moving towards the bottom. The frustrating response, "You should have thought of that before" comes to mind.

I think it entirely possible, even likely, that this principle may be present in the issue regarding why we must seek God with "all" of our hearts and souls in order to find Him. In the same way that our affinity to alcoholism is affected previous to our making any decisions at all, by virtue of our parents being alcoholic, our affinity to being numb towards things outside of the character of God may have been affected previous to our making any decisions at all.

Perhaps our hearts and souls were once undivided from His, and no amount of searching was needed for the finding. Perhaps after innumerable displacements from His character, one's entire effort of searching is required for finding. Perhaps it is not the magnitude of the distance which is the requirement, but the position of the destination (yes). Once the party has ended, and "home" becomes everyone's aim, some take more coffee than others for the drive, and some not at all. I propose "all" of one searching may not be so drastic an effort the more one has found Who God is.