Chasing Shadows not God!

Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me... Ex 33:21 NIV

God said there was a place that Moses could get near to Him. He also invites you into that place of closeness with Him! In my 'Presence Driven' sermon series I have been talking about getting close to God and living in His presence. We have to pursue that with our whole hearts. But sometimes we are pursuing other things rather than the important thing!

Consider the following story:

Max was a handsome Irish Setter which my brother’s family had agreed to "baby sit" for the weekend. I also was visiting them that weekend and was keeping an eye on Max while they ran some errands. It was a bright, hot, Georgia afternoon.

Max was resting in my brother’s large fenced-in back yard. I was sitting on the back steps, petting him and admiring his beautiful long wine-colored coat, when all of a sudden Max leapt up and tore out after some creature which had caught his eye. As he ran, I looked out ahead of him and sure enough, there it was the shadow of a bird which was flying over the yard. As the shadow neared the end of the yard, it "flew" into the shadow of a tree which reached out onto my brother’s property. When the two shadows met, the bird’s shadow disappeared, but that’s not how Max was interpreting the experience. He was still almost at a full run, for a mature, but somewhat inexperienced Irish Setter, when he reached the tree’s shadow. The abrupt disappearance of his prey was very confusing for Max. With every muscle in his body tense, claws dug into the dirt, tail high and wagging with excitement and anticipation, ears forward, tongue out and panting, eyes wide open and searching everywhere in the immediate area for his illusive game.

Max was the perfect image of me when I have fallen for the deception of the enemy. So willing, or determined, to expend any amount of energy for something that looks real or right and calls on my natural abilities in just the right way... but there is no substance, only shadow, and that which is real I have missed by a long shot. The obvious difference in Max and me/us is that, hopefully, we don’t keep chasing shadows all day long, or life long. By the end of the afternoon, Max was exhausted!

Isn’t that what chasing shadows does to all of us?