God Pursuing Us

Apr. 1, 2006 - God Pursuing us
I'm using the Ransomed Heart by John Eldridge as my devotional right now. He leads us down a path lined with the complexities of life with Christ. It's one of those books that I put down with more questions than I had when I started ... I LOVE THAT! Today, the topic is God Purusing Us ... The quoted prayer by Simon Tugwell reads like this:

So long as we imagine that it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart. But it is the other way around. He is looking for us. And so we can afford to recoginze that very often we are not looking for God: far from it, we are in full flight from him, in high rebellion against him. and he knows that and has taken it into account. He has followed us into our own darkness; there where we thought finally to escape him, we run straight into his arms. So we do not have to erect a false piety for ourselves, to give us the hope of salvation. Our hope is in his determination to save us, and he will not give in.

Psalm 46:10 says "Be still and know that I am God." STILL ... what a simple concept and one I can not seem to accomplish. In my more rebellious moments of 'seeking God' have felt like the kid who is always "IT" in Tag! Always searching, always running around like crazy, always missing my objective by the slightest margin ... always a step slow. What a funny picture it is if you imagine the same kid running around like a maniac, thinking that she's "IT" when really she's the one being pursued. And, isn't that really the way it is.

I remember when my son was about 4, we'd just moved into the house we live in now. There's a long drive way from our house to the common drive that fronts all the lots in around us and heads down to the lake. The rule was, if you can't see the mommy, stop where you are and start walking toward the house. If you can't see the house, stop where you are start yelling for mommy or daddy(our fear was the lake at the end of the outer drive) As he was exploring one morning while I was mowing when I realized that I could no longer see him. I'd been distracted for only a few moments, but he wasn't where I thought he would be. I quickly shut the mower down and started to listen. At first it was just silence. Even recounting that moment now, I can feel my throat beginning to seize in panic. And then I started calling him ... then the crying and yelling began. I quickly crossed the ditch at the bottom of the hill and found him sitting in the middle of the drive, crying and yelling "Mommy, I'm here, Mommy, I'm here!" When our eyes met, and he knew he was safe, the cries that had been mixed with screams were replaced by those deep in your chest sobs of relief, sobs that led to gasps that lasted even until he fell asleep on my lap. Later that evening, I asked him, "Why didn't you call for help?" and his reply was "Oh yeah, I forgot, I thought I was just supposed to stop where I was ... my legs got tired so I sat down, then I got thirsty and scared and started to get sad inside. I didn't remember to yell for help until I heard you yell for me."

IF we would only learn to do the same thing with God. We we notice we can't "see" Him any longer, stop and start yelling for him. His arms are as ready and willing to scoop us up, huddle us in close and make it all better. Or, if we find ourselves in the eternal game of "Tag" stop running around long enough to listen closely, we may just hear the voice that will remind us of what we're supposed to do. What a relief it is after days, weeks, months and maybe even years of running around in a desperate search for security, to turn one last corner and land squarely in the arms of our Heavenly Father. Can you feel it?