Thank you for your comment. I wholeheartedly agree that desire is key to the process of turning (or returning) to God.

Thanks again for sharing your story. I think it’s “incompleteness” is part of what makes it so compelling. We are, after all, here to walk by faith.

A big part of my return is that I have had a desire to do so. Very soon after my “Why I Was Wrong” post, I wrote another post wherein I said, “On the other hand, given enough motivation and time, I suspect that even the most hard-nosed of rationalists/scientists/philosophers will eventually find a way to think themselves to the beliefs that they so badly long to have. And this, in turn, fills me with hope.” This was my way of unpacking David Hume’s famous claim that “Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions.” Predictably, a lot of the more intellectually minded strongly objected to this overly provocative way of stating things, insisting that I was praising self-deceit and outright self-contradiction. They simply could not understand that “My post was not meant to suggest that in time we can or ought to violate the rules of rational inquiry such that we can pass from conceptual point A to point B. Rather, I meant to suggest that the rules of rational inquiry are sufficiently flexible, nuanced and versatile that, given enough time and motivation, it is pretty much possible to go from any point A to any point B without violating them.”

(Here is the thread I’ve been quoting from: http://www.newcoolthang.com/index.php/2012/03/a-humean-hope/3011/)

I think the point I was making generalizes in just the way that you, Michelle, suggest in your post. If a person really has a desire to find their way, then given enough time, effort and help from above, they will find their way. The Lord will never try to reconvert us against our will, but He will provide a way for us to accomplish our righteous desires in His own time and in His own way.