The Pursuit of...

For anyone who has seen the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith, consider for a moment replacing the word "happyness" with something important to you. For me, at various points in my life, this pursuit has included "the pursuit of graduation" (right now), "the pursuit of victory" as with a basketball game, and most importantly, "the pursuit of God." The point of this movie which struck me deepest was when Will Smith finds himself in deep poverty ($20 in his bank account), recently evicted from his home, in the middle of an unpaid internship, and the responsibility of raising a son. At this point, he and his son are sitting in a subway station in the middle of the night with nowhere to go, with only each other. The scene closes with Will Smith holding his sleeping son in the subway bathroom, baracading the locked door with his foot, and tears streaming down his face. His pursuit of happyness had brought him to this place. And it reminded me that often times those things which we pursue wholeheartedly, will often lead us to these kind of places, and it is in those places that we are faced with the reality of whether or not what we are pursuing is truly worth it. Unlike Smith, I think that my mindset likes to be focused on receiving only, as opposed to obedient risk-taking. It is easy for me to try to take the path of least resistence. And for a while, I thought that the path of least resistance meant the right path. But this is far from the truth I believe. Just look at the the life of Jesus. The life of His disciples. Resistance was the air that they breathed. But they knew the truth, and Jesus knew what must be accomplished. Resistance then can be used for good, because we are forced to trust in strength that may not be our own, but rather comes from Christ. The beauty too of facing resistance as we pursue what our goals, pursue our God-given calling/passions is that in this time we become truly thankful, and grateful. It is not the times that things come easy that we are most truly thankful it is when we put sweat, tears, prayer, and time in to something. What Will Smith had left in that subway bathroom was really nothing more than hope and his determination amidst an on-slaught of responsibility. He was faced with the choice to keep pressing on, keep hoping, keep fighting, keep loving, or give up his pursuit. As we press on, as we take the next step, as we set our eyes on the goal, we constantly have with us what has already been attained in Christ as stated in Philippians 3. Christ has been pouring in to us our entire lives through experiences, mentors, and relationships. And so as we can press on in our calling, and the pursuits which God has given us a desire for... but we should never forget where we come from, or what has been accomplished for us, and how he has been faithful. Sometimes we are freely given what we don't deserve. Other times, we have to fight, struggle, and obediently take risk. William Wallace said it this way, "Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now,would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!"