'Consider how dogs hunt rabbits. One dog spots the rabbit and runs after it, giving chase. When the other dogs in the pack see that one dog race down that path, they take off after him, until they become winded and quit, never having seen the rabbit. So they turn back. That one dog, however, will pursue his quarry until he catches it. He ignores briers, rocks, injury, and weariness. He takes no notice that he is alone. He will not rest until he has caught that rabbit. it is the same with those who seek Christ, training their eyes on the cross. They ignore what upsets or injures them. Their eyes are fixed on reaching God's love.'" (From the "Sayings of the Father and Mothers"--Monks and nuns who lived in the desert in the 3rd century)
That is how we follow hard after Christ--ignoring insults or discomfort or personal whims or distractions that tend to detour us away from the path of the upward call of God. How often we can be like that half-hearted herd of dogs who run for a bit but then lose interest or focus or strength. If we have not had a vision of His glory, if we are not cultivating that intimate, life-sustaining personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, then we are much more prone to wander off or wearily give up or just weaken a bit here or there till we are far afield from where we should be. If we have seen Him, truly seen Him that, each day, then we will keep following, despite the hardships or disappointments or unexpected difficulties that any day can bring. But we have to be like that first dog that actually saw the rabbit, for without a vision of our prize, our goal, our Savior and His inestimable beauty and glory and goodness, we will falter and faint.
G. Campbell Morgan put it this way: "The supreme need in every hour of difficulty and distress is for a fresh vision of God. Seeing Him, all else takes on proper perspective and proportion." Isn't that so true? It really comes down to upon what or Whom am I fixed? Am I fixed upon Christ? Or am I fixed upon my problems, my circumstances, my limitations, my selfish desires, my perceived mistreatment by others, my things? The world shouts at us: "Look here! Here is happiness! Here is true contentment and fulfillment! If you will only buy this! or If you will just change... and you fill in the blank: change your spouse, change your house, change your car, change your job. or If you will only have better children or better clothes or better body or better skills. or If you will only drink this or consume this or eat this. Then, finally, deservedly, you will be truly happy and fulfilled!"
It is a lie. And how often we believe it. How often I believe it. Forgive me, Lord. For in You, and in You only, is fullness of joy. You are the source of all that I love. You are the Giver of all good and glorious gifts--from my husband to my children to my siblings to my friends to my health to my home to my sweet old Moses to this colorful, magnificent world in which I live and move and love and laugh. But I need to focus upon You, gaze upon You in Your Word and in prayer so that all the other things fall into the proper perspective. I need to follow hard, follow with determination and joy, because I have had a vision of Your glory.
Paul declared in Philippians 3:10-14 "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
So today, keep pressing on! Keep forgetting what is past and straining towards what's ahead... because you have a clear vision of the Perfect Prize, our Savior Jesus. Don't be like that half-hearted pack of dogs that gives in or gives up, because they have not seen the prize. See Him today. Seek Him today. He is waiting right now in His Word. And He is glorious. To God be the glory.
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