Skip to main content

One word: Pursue

Life is a journey. When we stop, things don't go right. (Pope Francis)

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. (Colossians 3:1-2)

Act like it - a behavior change is required, is it not? When we embrace this life in Christ, there is to be evidence of having a life change. How is this change manifest? We embrace or pursue the things that were once foreign to us. In other words, we stop being so absorbed with the things of this world and we ask God for a change of focus. We want to be open to the things God is doing, but there are times we are so absorbed in the things going on around us in this world, we forget to get his perspective.

All of this life with Christ is really defined by one word: PURSUE. At first, we are pursued by God. As we embrace the life of grace offered through Christ, we begin to pursue him. Our immediate response may be to just follow his path because it is pleasant, and things seem to be changing for the better. After a bit, the challenge to pursue is a little harder - things don't seem to be changing at as rapid of a pace in our lives, so we may get a little bogged down. It was great while that immediate 'thrill' of pursuit was there, but now that it is getting harder, the investment greater, we are challenged a bit in our pursuit.

As Pope Francis reminds us, we cannot stop just because the journey is hard, or it isn't moving at the same pace as before. Growth is sometimes rapid-fire, but at others, it is slow, tedious, and even a bit of a struggle. A plant begins by putting down one main root, then it puts of littler ones. At the same time, a stem begins to struggle to the surface, leaves begin to appear, and then more leaves. The first two leaves soon fall away, no longer needed because the 'permanent growth' is beginning to appear. 

It is oftentimes like than when God asks us to grow in a certain area. We put down one root, let some other smaller ones develop, seeing immediate signs of 'new life', but then it seems to take forever for the other 'leaves' to grow. Life takes time - change is occurring, but the pace has just changed. The plant doesn't just stop growing because it has a few 'first leaves'. It puts down more roots, digging in a bit deeper, and sending all that it receives by those roots to the parts that need growth. God does the same in us - we pursue (send down roots), he nourishes, and we put forth new growth. Don't ever stop the pursuit because you are never going to see the fullness of growth if you do. Just sayin

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,