On the Pursuit

Last night I was talking with a couple of my friends/fellow youth workers, reminiscing a little bit about past relationships. As we discussed former girlfriends/boyfriends (one of these people was a girl), we exchanged a lot of stories and a lot of laughs.

As I thought about some of those things, it got me thinking about how we act toward people in whom we are interested. If you're like me, whenever you find someone that you're attracted to, you do everything you can to be with or around that person. You try to associate with them as much as possible in an effort to further your relationship.

It is a pursuit. You are chasing the person that you adore.

Our relationship with God is much the same way. It should be a pursuit, a constant longing for God which results in following hard after him.


I was talking to a new friend today about one of my favorite books, A.W. Tozer's "Pursuit of God." I love the image that Tozer describes in this book of desperately longing for the Lord, not just wandering aimlessly in your faith.

When you pursue something, you chase after it relentlessly, almost like a hunter chasing its prey, or a police officer chasing after a fugitive. It is non-stop. When a cop chases the fugitive, he doesn't spend five minutes chasing him and then wait for the next day to roll around so he can spend five more minutes chasing him again.

So why do we do this with God?

Yes, the pursuit can get wearisome. Yes, we can feel tired or unsure of what is going on. But if we are truly pursuing God, we will do whatever it takes to get as close to him as possible. We don't seek glory, we don't seek riches, we don't seek popularity.

We seek God.

And when we drop everything we have to chase after the God that gave up everything for us, we begin to better know and understand him.

That is the pursuit.