In the Pursuit of God

Today at church, (which was held outside due to the power mysteriously being out, along with most of Campus on top of the hill) Ken talked about pursuing God and what that looks like/why it is important. Aside from the brilliant reading of "What's the Matter, Bunny Blue? there were also a couple of points that really hit me that I thought I would share.


~Actively pursuing God is difficult.

It's not an easy task to yearn to know God. It's easy to read books about God, to talk about God, to tell others about God, but that is not intimately knowing who God is.
I thought a lot about this in the context of relationships and marriage. Partially because gave one example of it, and partially because after our first meeting with Garrett last Wednesday, I've been thinking about marriage a lot. Anywho.
Think about the person that you like/love. You could read a book about him. You could talk about him. You could tell other people about him and how great and wonderful he is. But how do you actually KNOW him? The way that I KNOW Dan, is because I talk to him, all the freaking time. I tell him about my day, he tells me about his, we share experiences with each other, we see each other frequently, etc. etc. But it's not always easy. Knowing Dan has taken A) a lot of time, B) many hard/difficult conversations, and C) a lot of tears and frustration. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Do I put that much effort and time into my relationship with my Lord and Creator? Absolutely not.

~Great relationships are formed when each person is actively pursuing each other to the same degree.

I have crushed on a lot of boys in my day. It pretty much started in Kindergarten and never stopped. I used to keep a list in the back of my diary of all the guys I had had crushes on so I wouldn't forget about any of them. Oh boy. I teased and flirted with all of those boys, to some extent, but I never had any sort of relationship with them. Why? Well partially because I was 10 years old and anyone who thinks that a 10 year old can have a boyfriend is off their rocker. But also because these boys probably didn't even know that I liked them and they never gave any effort or thought to pursuing me. I was pursuing them (in a way that 10 year olds can) but that pursuit was not reciprocated.
This was further understood when I thought about the boyfriends I actually did have when I was older and in high school. At some point all of them ended for one reason or another. Oftentimes it was because one of us didn't want to put as much work and effort into the relationship as the other. We were contributing unequally and we were in an unpleasant situation for both of us. The pursuit of one was not matching the pursuit of the other and therefore the relationship failed.

I feel like the same can apply to our relationship with God. Your relationship will be so much better, so much stronger, and so much more worthwhile, if you are pursuing God as much as He is pursuing you. And since it would be impossible to pursue God more than He is pursuing us, then a better way to look at it would be,

The more that you pursue(seek to KNOW) God, the better your relationship will be because the closer you will get to (unattainable) "equilibrium."

OR

Pursue God as much as He pursues you, that is when a relationship is formed.

Whichever one of those phrases from Allyson's crazy mind makes more sense to you...hehehe.

~When we seek God we will find Him, but we have to prepare for what comes with that.

Philippians 3:10-11

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain tot he resurrection from the dead.

Sometimes knowing God intimately means that we will suffer trials and go through crap. He never promises that things will be easy, filled with fluffy pillows and chocolate fondue, but He does say that He will never leave us and the promise of a life with Him should be enough to press on toward the goal for which he has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All this to say that I was really challenged today with what it means to pursue Christ and why is is so important. Recently I have put a lot of thought and effort and time into my relationship with Dan, because I think it is important and because I think it is worth it. Why should my relationship with my Creator look any different?