Pursuit

Pursuit. Everyday, all around the world, people pursue the car, the experience, the beauty, the knight in shining armor, the job, the house, the latest fashion, the newest technology...the dream that captivates them. What is it that gets us out of bed in the morning? For most, that dream they're pursuing. It's the reason they can bear the job or manager that drives them crazy. It's how they get themselves out of bed before the sun's risen outside. It's the lack of a pursuit that makes our days miserable to get through.

Pursuits. They captivate our imaginations, fuel our daydreams, and drive our ambitions. They're a powerful thing. Think of the women and men who have changed the world because of the passions they have pursued. Martin Luther King Jr. Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Billy Graham. Steve Jobs. The list goes on. The truth in nearly every business book is that we rarely accomplish anything we're not pursuing and we rarely (if ever) have the perseverance to pursue something we're not passionate about. We pursue things that make us come alive, that consume our thoughts, our imagination, and our time.

What if we were someone else's passion, their pursuit? What if thoughts of us consumed their imagination, their thoughts, their time? What if we were the ones that made them come alive? What if you, what if I, were the ones that fueled another's passion? What if we were the thing that drove them to accomplish their goal - us? People in passionate pursuit of something will give up anything for it. How many entrepreneurs give up countless hours of sleep, money, energy, and their lives to accomplish what they're pursuing? It's a truth, not an exaggeration, that the people listed above 'gave their lives' for their passions - not just by dying for them (in the case of MLK Jr.), but more importantly, living for them.

Now, put those two pieces together. What if you were what someone was pursuing? What if you meant so much to them, that they were willing to give everything for you? Their sleep, their time, their money - their very lives. It's why loves stories captivate us so much. It's what we all long for - to know that we mean so much to someone else that they'd be willing to lay down their lives for us. It's what women dream of - a man who will pursue them and give everything for them. It's what men hope for - a woman they can give their life for, knowing that she'll give her life for him. Both long to be the desire and pursuit of another.

C.S. Lewis made the point that what we see, experience, feel in this world is simply a taste, a vapor, a spark of what's true of the next. This world simply echoes and reflects that which is eternal, unmarred by our greed, jealousy, or bad choices. It blows my mind to realize that we are what God is pursuing, that we are what He is passionate about. God's passionate pursuit of me is is greater than anything I'll ever experience or see on this earth. If men and women can give up their sleep, their time, their money, and their lives for their pursuits - God's pursuit of me has been, is, and continues to be even greater than that. The God of the universe, who doesn't need me, gave up so much to pursue me. Jesus gave up his place in heaven to come to earth. He went from being fully-God, to being fully-God and fully-man, taking on the form of us - humanity. He fixed himself to one place by taking on a bodily form - no longer God, everywhere all at once. He gave up his status as the ruler of the universe to be born in a manger. He gave up his desire to be spared the cross to be obedient to his Father - knowing that it was only by His death, a perfect, final sacrifice (Heb 9-10), that God would be able to have a relationship with us - the object of his pursuit ever since the world began. Unlike others, his life wasn't taken from him. He willingly laid it down to pursue me. He was the greatest of entrepreneurs. The most passionate of pursuers. He gave everything - both in life and in death - for his passion, a relationship with me and you. That we might know Him, as He knows us.

And then, at the end of it all, he left it up to us. It wasn't even a sealed deal. He pursued it as far as he could and then he left the final step up to us. We have the freedom to step towards him, or to step away. But he's given everything to pursue us. We, you and me, who captivate his thoughts and have fueled everything he's done since the creation of this world - we are his great pursuit. It's the power behind a truth they teach in Sunday School:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." (John 3:16-17)

It's why the story in the Bible is so powerful and has rung true throughout the millenia, and continues to. It's the great pursuit. It's the most powerful romance story - of a lover who has given it all for the one He loves. And He's done it all so that we might know him - as we know our friends, our family, and the ones we love - intimately, resting in their love, their grace, and the delight they have for us.

Know that God's crazy about you. He's been passionately pursuing you since the beginning of the world and he continues to. You are his great delight and He desires, so much, to be in a relationship with you, for you to rest in the fact that he's absolutely crazy about you - and that his grace and love is absolutely sufficient for every excuse and reason you could possibly make up for why He shouldn't love you. Give it up, you're in a loosing battle! ;-) He's crazy about you and no excuse you make or secret your reveal will scare him away or surprise him. He's been passionately pursuing you since you were born and He's not about to give up!