Chasing After You

We spend so much of our lives chasing after something. As children we chase after our parents approval. As teens we chase after our peers acceptance. As students we chase after knowledge. Many young adults are chasing after careers or relationships. Some of us get so caught up in chasing after stuff that we fail to realize who’s chasing after us.
I’ve been extremely reflective over the last couple of day and I have been able to see that there have been so many times over my life where God was chasing after me trying to get my attention. However, me being the special person that I am, I have kept chasing after other things instead of turning around and jumping to His warm embrace. I’ve spent countless years chasing after acceptance, love, purpose, and validation and I’ve cried countless tears over my lack of success. It just seems so amazing to see that everything that I have ever wanted was chasing right behind me.
I truly thank God that HE was patient enough to wait on me to get it together. You see I always knew that there was something behind me, but for the longest time I thought that it was all of the stuff that I was trying to get away from. The past mistakes, the broken relationships, the low self-esteem, the thoughts of suicide, and all of the other things that I was trying to run far away from. The reality was that it was God chasing after me in an effort to save me from the very things that I was running from and trying to give me the things that I was chasing after. I just wouldn’t slow down long enough to figure it out.
Once I finally grew tired of running God captured my attention and soon enough my heart. Funny thing is that after he finally had me right where he wanted me he let me go. And that’s when I began my pursuit of him.
It kind of reminds me of a scene I saw in a park once. There was a father who playfully chased behind his daughter. He let her run, but he never allowed her to get to far out of his reach. As soon as she began to get tired he would scoop her up into his arms and hug and kiss and tickle her and then he would put her down and immediately she began to chase after him. It was like the loves that she felt in the moment that she was captured gave her the energy that she needed to go after Him to relive that feeling again. For them it was a continuous game of cat and mouse.
For God and I it’s the same thing, and that is why I will forever be chasing after him!