Radical Pursuit

What does it mean to radically pursue?

If I were to explain in my own words, I would say something along the lines of this; to radically pursue is to chase after something, someone, or an idea. In other words, a goal. Radical pursuit is to violently follow the steps required to achieve said goal and let nothing get in the way.

              In the previous blog, I promised to write a second part about the life of David. Ladies and gentlemen, here it is! A disclaimer before we begin, I will touch on mostly the early life of David, simply because I haven’t completed my study ??

When I think of radical pursuit, I think of David. A man who brought everything to God, even when things were tough and he easily could have ended his suffering, he remembered what God had done for him. This is it for me. I want to live my life in the same patience, trust, and peace that David lived his.

Early on, he was a shepherd to his sheep which gave him a lot of time away from other people. In this time, he brought worship to God, he played his instruments with his whole being, and it’s even said that he influenced the angels in their worship to God. He was good at worshipping God, and he was good at tending to his sheep. In the story A Tale of Three Kings The author, Edwards Gene writes, “When the shepherd did not praise and when he did not cry, he tended to each and every sheep and lamb”. I ask myself, how can I bring worship to God while still tending to each and every one of my sheep and lambs? This has been on my mind a lot recently, praising Him as often as possible.

Obviously as he tended to his sheep and lambs, there would be predators who try to feed on these animals who David loved. One of these predators, a bear, came. Without any fears or doubts, David slings a rock into its skull with his slingshot that was well used. (a quick side note, you all should read A Tale of Three Kings, because it does a lot better than I do telling the story) Ok, so David has now killed a bear that was probably violent because it was hungry and wanted a sheep to feast on. This prepares David for what happens next. He starts to visit a battlefield where his brothers and friends are and his job is to bring them food and such. Something happens next. I love the way the story puts it, so here it is. “On one such visit to the battlefront, he killed another bear, in exactly the same way as he had the first. This bear, however, was nine feet tall and bore the name Goliath.” We see that David has already experienced this, so it’s not a big deal for him. SO GOOD! This applies to our lives as well especially in trials and sufferings because they produce perseverance! We’ve already experienced so much in our lives, so we know that we can keep going even in our hardships.

I want to be like David because he was not afraid of Goliath, he had already conquered the bear. I want to be like David because he tended to each and every sheep and lamb. I want to be like David because he protected each and every sheep and lamb. Here are some other characteristics of David I want to walk out in my own life.

David was being chased around by Saul who was trying to kill him. He was a sheep to be slaughtered. The man even knew this. “Then David said in his heart, ‘Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul…’” (1 Samuel 27:1) Kinda funny how God flips the scripts on what we think will happen. Anyway, back to the point. In the midst of David accepting his fate he could be killed by Saul, he remained patient and didn’t become a Saul himself. What I mean by this is that he never fought back or broke his character as David. This is what I want to live like. I find it challenging when I missed breakfast and I complain to myself and justify being lazy. The young boy had a man radically pursuing him to take his life, yet he never broke character by the grace of God. In fact, he even wrote the Psalms in that process. So who am I, a tiny human, to say my circumstances are unfortunate? On the contrary, in fact, my circumstances are amazing; I have the King of Kings who doesn’t need me at all, yet he still chooses me and loves me more than anyone can comprehend. They say happiness is circumstantial, so I literally can be happy all the time. Look at my circumstances!

All in all, reading about David has been such an encouragement of the Lord’s faithfulness and his grace in my life! It makes me so excited that I can live with his “yes” attitude!

Thank you all for reading,

See you next time!

–          Colin