Pursuit

Written by cycleguy on October 18th, 2012

Those who know me may find it hard to believe that I sometimes drive Jo nuts.   I know.  I know. Shock of all shocks! No, I am not OCD.  No, I am not ADHD.  And that is not a slam against those who are.  It is just that I drive Jo nuts. She rolls her eyes.  She makes snide comments to people about a quirk I have.  I am sorry to break it to you, my readers, that I have a quirk.  But I reckon I do.

Whenever we go out to eat, I insist that I sit facing the door.

I tell her it is because I read so many westerns and a gunslinger never sat with his back to the door.

She says, “Pfffft!”

I tell her it is because I don’t like to be surprised.

She says, “Pffft!”

Then she hears “I am an observer of people.”

Tired of playing my game she will say, “No…you just can’t stand not seeing people and saying hi to them. 

BUSTED!  🙂

That last statement of mine is not far from the truth. I am an observer of people.  One of my favorite things is going to an amusement park.  I am at the age where riding the rides no longer holds much appeal, but watching people does.  Now there is the real name for the park…AMUSEMENT!   I also like to watch people in restaurants.  You see those who are full of life and animation.  You see booths of young people laughing and carrying on (and doing all kinds of things with their food).  You see young couples in love and barely eating.  About two months ago we went to lunch after worship with some people from the church.  Jo & I had an older couple sit next to us.  They came in after us.  Ordered.  Ate. Left. Barely said two words to each other.  They hurt my feelings by barely wanting to chat with me.  Well, not really, but I would have talked if they had wanted to.  🙂   You can make a case for boredom or you can make a case for comfort and intimacy.  Pick your poison.

A case can be made for the same thing in the Christian life.  There are those who live life passionately, but there are those just “getting by.”  I prefer the passionate part.  We can allow our relationship to God just “get by” or we can passionately pursue Him.

Sunday in my message, I will be talking about this very thing.  God wants us to passionately pursue Him. See this Scripture.  That word “know” used in verse 10 means “to know intimately.”  God has pursued us passionately.  He wants us to pursue him with that same type of passion.  Fans want to play it safe; followers will do crazy things for love.  Fans want to have just enough to make them comfortable; followers will break the box.

Which one are you?  Do you passionately pursue your relationship with Jesus? 

 

17 Comments so far ↓

  1. Depends on who you ask….

  2. Daniel says:

    I too people watch. The other night I was at the amusement park to pick up my daughter. There were so many teenagers pair up, just enjoying each other and life. I warmed my heart and gave me a smile.

    I try to pursue God with all that I am. Yet I think I am more comfortable reading and studying than I am living and doing. That bothers me and it makes me wrestle with myself.

  3. Steve Martin says:

    “Do you passionately pursue your relationship with Jesus?”

    Not really. I’ve got too many other appetites that distract me, constantly.

    But He passionately pursues me…all the time. he’s got me in His strong grip, no matter how hard I try to get away.

    Wow. What a God!

  4. I think the passion waxes and wanes for me. That’s not something I’m proud of and perhaps that’s normal. But it’s the truth.

  5. Craig says:

    hahaha
    sometimes our wives know us better than we know ourselves.
    ok – maybe it’s most of the time 🙂

    I want God to say “well done” when this life is over. I know there is a list of things He would probably say “why did you keep getting hung up on this?” – but hopefully that list is getting smaller.

    I would say yes. I do passionately pursue Jesus. Boy how the devil wants to play with your head on this one!

    thanks Bill.

  6. floyd says:

    I’m one of those guys who also have to sit with my back to the wall. In martial arts it’s called being on yellow alert. White being not alert at all and red being on high alert. You’re not foolin’ me Mister!

    I try to be passionate and deliberate in “knowing” my Father. It takes discipline. “Draw nigh to Me and I will draw nigh unto you.” In depth study and prayer is a weekly discipline. It brings me peace and joy regardless of my circumstances…

  7. Jan says:

    Honestly I feel like I pursue Him somedays more, somedays not so much….that’s shameful to say, so thankful for His grace! I do read, pray & study daily though, once I get in the word it is hard to put it down somedays.
    *As for your quirk, well, I am one who likes to face to door as well, only I do it because I always tell Michael that I want to be prepared should I see someone with a gun, I am paranoid about getting caught in a crowd & someone starts shooting. Yes, a very strange quirk, probably borders on paranoia. 😮

  8. Debbie says:

    Thank you for helping us check our passion levels. Mine could be kicked up quite a bit!
    There is a house we drive by, where someone who lives there must be passionate about purple. There are purple chairs and tables, flower pots and flowers, fencing and statues, wind chimes and watering cans. It makes me wonder if anyone looking at me, could tell that I am passionate for Jesus, like I can tell this person is passionate for purple.
    God bless you as you bring the passion message to your congregation this Sunday!

  9. Betty Draper says:

    Yes I pursue knowing the Lord passionately. Again it’s the knowledge He loves me still that drives me back to Him even when I prusue my own interest. Divine love always draws us toward it. Good post brother.

    PS…I am a people watcher too…

  10. lindaM says:

    Hi Bill,
    My devotions have suffered lately because of the many changes in my usual lifestyle. I have a boarder with 2 children, I have a new job that is challenging. This is not an excuse but in my mind, I guess, it is a reason for dropping the ball.

    What brings me back to devotions and God is knowing that he is so faithful to me. I want to be faithful to Him. I suppose it’s my love for Him and my desire to please Him.
    Another reason I come back to my devotions is that I know that I am keeping up to date with God by doing these. It is hard to hear from God if we are not spending some blocks of time in prayer. I have had a taste of this wonderful experience and it brings me back to prayer when I leave it off for a time.

    I wish to say that living and doing with God is just living our normal lives. I get concerned when I hear teachers talk about doing the ‘great’ thing for God. What is the great thing? Isn’t it keeping our relationship with God current and making godly decisions in our lives? This is the great thing.

    This idea of pushing believers to do bizarre things is concerning to me. Jesus did no such thing. It would have been difficult if not impossible to see the apostle Paul doing some weird and bizzare thing. We are sane. The world is going crazy.

    My feeling today is that pastors and teachers have to get off the bandwagon of popular teachings. In our day this seems to be the ‘wide road’ to destruction. These popular teachings have not been the ‘answer’ to the problems we have in our day. What these teachings have done is create pressure on leaders and congregations to feel ‘bad’ so to speak. By this I mean we are told we should be out there making disciples and doing these ‘great and marvelous, miraculous,mountain moving, spectacular, bizzare, weird, things for God’s name. This is a bit like asking the saints to control and change the weather. The saints are generally not mature enough to do these type of things, and there is no suggestion in the NT that Jesus is looking for the ‘bizarre’ in order to prove our love for Him.

    This sound to me like teachers going back into the OT, finding the stories of God’s prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel and trying to bring this behavior as ‘normal’ for all saints to be doing today. To me this is false teaching.

  11. lindaM says:

    Bill,
    I have heard something recently that I found interesting. Young people in Japan are generally leaving their parents teachings about the parents’ religious practices and beliefs. It appears that the ‘Arab spring’ revolutions by young people are some of the same. These young people leaving their parents’ religions and ways of living. I heard some time ago that the young people in Israel are in general doing the same thing. They are much more liberal than their orthodox teachers and their parents. We know from your post a short time ago that young people in the ‘church’ are doing the same thing. It seems likely that this ‘phenomenon’ is occuring almost world wide among youth.

    This may be a move of God. It almost seems likely because of the scope and quickness of how this ‘phenomenon’ is occuring. If so, then it is possible that another structure is coming forth in the world for people to practice their beliefs and faiths. Or, we are quickly becoming a world community with weak and ineffective religions. This situation can quickly open the door to the last ‘Antichrist’.

    It is our job as believers to make certain that we hold to our faith by reading the Bible, prayertime, and gathering in small groups to fellowship together. Our trust is not to be in money, possessions, popularity, job description, our country, our background, our family, our position in society, etc. but wholly in God. We will eventually push a pointed and broken reed through the palm of our hands if we lean on anything other than God.