”Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”
–The Cockle Bur

Sure now you will think me crazy for where my inspiration comes from. After I read the quote above this morning the word I focused on was “pursuit”. After all, looking back, I spent some time this morning pursuing information on hybrid cars, scooters and other environmentally friendly stuff. That was after I spent some time lying in bed pursuing God. And when I’m done here I will pursue moving along on some other projects that will bring some funding for even more pursuing. Seems I am always pursuing something.

According to Merriam-Webster, “pursue” comes from the Latin “prosequi” which comes “pro” meaning “forward”, and “sequi” meaning “to follow”.

So, what did I do next, after reading that? I went to Google and typed in “pursuing Christ”. Really. Shouldn’t most of my pursuits (saying “all” seems intimidating) lead me to Him? When not directly, shouldn’t they be traceable? If not, what am I chasing after and why? Wait, back to Google. After clicking and reading a variety of links I was reminded of some wonderful words from Scripture, in particular Philippians:

Philippians 3:12 (NIV) : “that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

Philippians 4:8 (NIV) : “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

In addition, I found a wonderful analogy: “What person takes one spoonful of the greatest ice cream they’ve ever tasted and puts the spoon down never to taste it again? And what sinner has tasted of the glorious grace of God through Jesus Himself, been forgiven of his sins and had the weight of eternal condemnation lifted from his spirit, only to never desire to drink again from that living fountain?” – Jon Daley on December 1, 2006 (buried in his blog at http://jon.limedaley.com/plog/).

What a great way to move forward through today for me.

“Now as those who have not yet obtained and who have not yet been perfected, we are pursuing Christ.” From ‘Life Study of Philippians’, p. 194, by Witness Lee. (you can read this much of this book on Google: http://books.google.com/books?id=jhoazym3N1kC&printsec=frontcover. Wow! There are some pages left here and there.)

Obviously I could go on and on, but the question remains for me, and for you, what am I pursuing?

I leave you with these words from A.W. Tozer in his book ‘The Pursuit of God’: “Our pursuit of God is successful just because He is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us.”

Boy, if that doesn’t get me fired up, what does?