Yes, God designed us to pursue, but not things on earth.
Dare 2 Share - There’s just something about Wile E. Coyote that you have to love. Remember him? He’s the coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons who is forever trying to catch that lightning fast bird through whatever means possible. Growing up, I never ceased to be amused at the ingenious plans he would come up with in the hunt. With all the money he spent on Acme products, you would think he could have purchased a flock of Roadrunners!
But perhaps the whole point wasn’t about getting the bird. In my mind, the appeal of the cartoon was the chase. After all, how much fun would it have been to see Wile E. Coyote catch and eat the Roadrunner? I’m pretty sure that would have been the final episode.
What do we humans find so intriguing about ‘the chase’? I personally think that it is in our very nature to pursue things with the reckless abandon of a half-crazed coyote- the question is: what is the object of our pursuit?
I suppose the answer to that question varies greatly depending on your age. When you are a teenager, it’s usually it’s the dating chase- or whatever you would call trying to fit in and succeed at social interactions. Then you ‘grow up’, and you pursue family, careers, money- or whatever you would call trying to fit in and succeed at making yourself ‘happy’.
Did you ever want to climb in the T.V. and tell Wile E. Coyote that he was an idiot and he would never catch the Roadrunner? I did. As funny as his miscues were, I still felt kinda sorry for that determined doggy, because he would never in a million years complete his hunt.
And neither will you…if you are after the things that most people chase. Things like happiness and fulfillment are quicker and more elusive than the Roadrunner- and do we ever look foolish to God when we keep trying to set up elaborate schemes to reel them into our lives.
I think sometimes God wants to climb into our lives and tell us that we are idiots and we will never catch those things. They are traps set up by the devil so he can catch us!
You know that feeling inside that says you need something more out of this life? That’s the still small voice of God, saying “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7).
Yes, God designed us to pursue, but not things on earth. We have a built in “God-homing” device- and no amount of cash, toys, thrills, or people can fit the bill on this one. Everybody wants to feel O.K.- but to really achieve that, you're going to have to go back to the source.
This is how Jesus put it:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33)
Seek. Pursue. Chase. Hunt. Be a ‘God-stalker’. Search for Him first, and you will find that the appeal of all those silly Roadrunners will go away. You’ll see them run off into the sunset, but you really won’t care- because Christ has given you everything you need.
Start with His Word. Dig deeper into your reading, and start spending quiet moments where you are doing nothing but reflecting on Him. What you’ll discover is that only makes the chase even more appealing, because when you taste and see that the Lord is good- everything else in life will probably have the appeal of chewing on chalk. Happy hunting!
Questions:
1) What are you chasing right now?
2) Do you really think it will make you happy?
3) How can you start pursuing God on a deeper level?
