The Chase

We spend our lives chasing.  As children we learn the came of tag.  We learned to chase another until someone was tagged and became "It" and then in an instant the one chasing became the one being chased.  This childhood game we carry into our adult years.  We no longer chase one another except as we chase one another up the status ladder, or the getting ahead stairs, but we do chase what so often proves to be illusive.  We chase success, happiness, health, security, and wealth, but no matter how much we manage to catch, it never seems as if it is enough.  For too many of us the chase is a life long chase.    

It may also be said that the real thing we are chasing in life is not something which belongs to the external world, but instead can only be found within us.  The chase is not so much about the physical as it is about the spiritual.  As we chase after what we can hold in our hands, we are really chasing after what we have lost and cannot seem to find.  A paradigm of this can be found in the Garden story found in the early pages of Genesis.  We have lost our connection to God, our Creator, and we are through the different seasons of our life chasing after the true self with which we were created and which belongs to us as a part of our spiritual heritage.    

We end up chasing what cannot be tagged, or caught.  We cannot run fast enough.  We do not know where to go.  When it comes to this chase, we are impotent and helpless.  When we come to the end of our energy for the chase, we are finally able to know that we are not the one doing the chasing, but the Creator is in the chase behind us.  Francis Thompson wrote a marvelous poem ("The Hound of Heaven") which has the lines, "From those strong Feet that followed, followed after; But with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, Majestic instancy."   Those of us who are weary of the chase can stop and let ourselves be caught by the One who is only a step behind us.