The Greatest Pursuit

Amidst all the clamour in the world today, there is one thing that remains when all else fades: your relationship with God. God will always be there but will you really know Him?

Whether we know it or not, most of us live our lives in two parts: the private, and the public. The public face is difficult to maintain, and the area that we usually devote the most time and effort into. Yet while our public face is important, your private life is actually the most important because it will also drive your public one.

If we are happy in private, then we will be happy in public; if we are discontent or unfulfilled, the public life may appear happy but lose a certain spark and we gradually spiral into a darkness and disconnectedness that we were not created for. Such a life is destructive. You have not truly lived if you are not alive in your own private life: "Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23

The Amplified version puts it this way: "keep and guard your heart with all diligence and above all that you guard, for out of it springs the issues of life."

So I bring this back to a question that I also ask myself: do you truly know God in your private life? Not just a list of facts and an acknowledgement of His presence but a heart-to-heart link, an affectionate devotion that is growing to eclipse other things in your life, an ongoing daily experience of hearing His still, small, steady voice in the hubbub of life, then finding the joy of obeying it because He is always right. It is in the awareness of His presence through daily life, the little sideways glances and smiles that true friends share, a likeness in the things you love - is it there?

For when you meet Him as Judge and King, you will be judged on your private life -- your heart: how you lived it, how you guarded and tended it, whether you looked to Him to order it for you and renovate the dark and jumbled places, whether the nice words you said, and the good things you did came from that deep place in your heart that is the spring of all things sincere.

Moreover, what were the contents of your heart - this private life? Is it full of sunshine and space, light, Life and strong, sturdy things founded in faith in God? Or is it cluttered with the dirty, the tattered and broken, the rotten and maimed, myriads of unnamed, unlabelled items that you have not dealt with?

When we face the last moments of life, it is the contents of the heart that will look you in the face - but we don't have to wait till then. We can live with clear, light hearts daily as we commune with God and live WITH Him, not just around Him. Only God can order our hearts and clear it for us on a daily basis -- and it is only possible if you truly know Him in your private life. Then only can you truly live, be truly free, and be the same in public AND private.

Yet, living free and happy is not the end goal. If it were, life would still be empty, and you would find yourself so close, and yet just out of reach of truly knowing God. The ultimate end of all that we seek and desire is found in Him: "for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3).

If you will pursue anything, pursue Jesus Christ. If you will strive in anything, let all else be lost to the pursuit of knowing the One who finds His greatest reward in the love and devotion of those He suffered and died to save. For to know Him is life's greatest adventure, the deepest, sweetest joy and most valuable treasure that one could have. It is the greatest pursuit one could have.