Not a contradiction at all.
Allow me to give two analogies -- one short; one longer:
Analogy A:
Girl A is "interested" in Guy B; both are independently @ the same concert; but while, yes, Girl A is interested in him, if she doesn't know he is present in that concert hall, so what? (She is "blind" to his presence) She may be interested in Him; she may be seeking Him in certain contexts, but it's going to take Guy B to "accidentally on purpose" place himself in her pathway on her way to a concession stand for her to "find" him. Was she "seeking" him when she found him? No! She was seeking mere food!
Analogy B:
Imagine that two back-country skiiers are lost in the wilderness -- apart from each other. They each had brief cell-phone coverage before losing it, in which somebody in authority texted them each -- a text that said, "Seek the rescuer who is in your vicinity."
So, that alerts them there's indeed a rescuer in their vicinity. They each have the potential to be on the look out. [That's represents man's potential responsiveness...yet such a man is still in a rather "helpless" situation...lost]
God's role is the rescuer. He's monitoring the lost skiiers. Because, of course, God knows precisely where they are. He sees their predicament. He knows the way out.
And as He tracks these two skiiers, the obvious comes out: Both know the Rescuer is in each of their vicinity, but while one is actively seeking Him, the other is in such a hopeless state with the rest of his life (verge of bankruptcy; wife just left him, substance abuse issues), all he sees from the circumstances of being lost in the wilderness is just another reason to end his life, not find it.
Lost people are only lost relationally to God; it's not that He doesn't know where they are at in life. God is looking for that bankrupt, abandoned, substance abuser to turn to the Rescuer for help. For some in such a condition, He's not necessarily going to "butt in" where not really wanted; yet for others in that exact same situation, He does "butt in" as Sovereign God -- and displays His marvelous grace & mercy.
To the other lost skiier, the one who was once a seeker, it doesn't really matter if he looks in 100 places, 1,000 places, or 10,000 places for the "rescuer." Why? Because that skiier was suffering from snow blindness. He no longer visually seeks the rescuer; because he cannot. He is now blind.
Therefore, if that Rescuer is God, it's going to take God to reveal Himself to the seeker.
My point is that it's not the actual "seeking" that finds God, as much as God seeing the receptivity and openness -- or at least past receptivity and ensuring that He steps into the pathway of a skiier -- so that even a blind skiier will simply "bump" right into Him! A blind skiier is blind -- he cannot look for anyone. God the rescuer is found by those who cannot look for Him.
“...if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7), and, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). (Council of Orange: Canon 6)
Are we lost or does Christ know how to find us if he so desired? If he doesn’t find us, what does that mean? If God is 100% in control then it must mean that God didn’t want Christ to find us.