• The Great Chase

    By: Kristen L. McNulty



    Recently I lost my dog of 13 years, Gracie. I really was blessed to have such a loyal companion and after losing her, my family and I have talked a lot about her antics over the years. While she was extremely well-behaved, she did have one weakness: a pair of fuzzy black slippers I had.

    I would come home and either find her either in my room or find the slippers in her bed. And unlike most dogs, she didn't take them because she wanted to chew them. She just liked to carry them around and play with them. To play it safe I would leave them in my room, where Gracie knew she wasn't allowed to go, but sure enough, every time someone wasn't looking, guess where Gracie went?

    And it's not like she needed to go in my room. She had plenty of her own toys that are a lot more appealing than my slippers are, but given the choice, she'd take the slippers every time- even if that means breaking rules to do so.

    I bring this up to make a point. Because really, aren't we all like Gracie in that way? Let's face it- we all have a weakness, something that we're prone to chase after. Something that we know isn't right, but we do it anyway. Whether that's relationships, positions, status, jobs, sin, you name it. It can be easy to look at that thing as something harmless, but let me remind you- everything has a consequence. That little sin may look little to you, but it can lead to a series of consequences that can literally destroy your life.

    Now I know that there are some people listening to this right now who don't see that and maybe even laugh at the thought, but I'm serious. You see, just a like a few weeks ago we talked about how each positive choice we make can change history, each negative choice we make can make a very messy history for us.

    We see this as the business man, in an attempt to pursue a bigger house and a better car ignores his family, and now comes home to an empty house. We see this as the high school student ignores God's plan for intimacy and heads down a path of self-destruction. We see this as the young guy goes to a party he shouldn't be at, drinks too much and gets behind the wheel, and now calls a jail cell home. We can see this in our own lives. We search, we chase, we sin, we self-destruct and in the process we ignore the blessings that are right in front of us.

    You see, God's plan for each one of His children is good. We've each been given so many incredible blessings and salvation itself is something we didn't earn, don't deserve, but are given its riches anyways. However, over and over again, don't we take our eyes off the blessings and instead lust after the things we don't have? I'm not just talking about material here. I'm talking about relationships. I'm talking about lifestyles. I'm talking about anything that you're chasing after that is not what God would have for your life or doesn't come from Him. I'm talking about settling for less than God's best.

    C.S. Lewis put it this way:

    "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”


    Are you too easily pleased? Then stop the chase and turn to Christ.Stop looking at the world to full a longing and let yourself be filled to the brim with God and the joy and blessings and peace and life that He brings! Satan would love you to believe that the life God has for you is boring or dull or somehow if you live it, you'll be missing out on something. But the life God has for us, when we chase after Him, not the world, is the most exciting, soul-filling, joy-expressing life you could ever imagine! As Jesus said in John 10:10: "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life."

    So where ever you are right now, whatever you're doing: stop. Stop running. Stop hiding. Stop pretending. Run into the arms of your Father and allow Him to take away your running shoes and instead dive headfirst into the abundant life He has for you here and now. One that might not look like you've pictured it, but one that will be better and richer and fuller than you could have ever imagined.

    Closing with a quote from Shauna Niequist's book Cold Tangerines. Shauna writes,

    "This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted.

    Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is. You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.

    You are more than dust and bones.
    You are spirit and power and image of God.
    And you have been given Today.”


    Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.

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