I feel like I’m being chased. Who’s chasing me?

If God really exists and wants to know us, I think it’s perfectly natural to think he’s going to run us down-no matter how much we try to elude him. Francis Thompson is an excellent representative of this.

Born into a respected family in 1859, Francis Thompson’s life seemed to be on the right path. He came from a Catholic family, and his father was a doctor. In hopes that he would one day become a priest, his father sent him to seminary at Ushaw College. Francis, however, didn’t want to go to college, let alone become a priest. Instead of embracing the Bible, he soon embraced a new-found Opium addiction. Now homeless, he would wander the streets of the Charring Cross District in London and sleep on the banks of the River Thames. Through all of this, Francis never saw his true potential.

Every once in a while Francis would pick up a newspaper and write a letter to the editor with whatever piece of writing material he could come up with. The writer, “recognizing the genius of Milton,” was continually disappointed when he saw no return address. In order to solve this mystery of the anonymous poet, the Editor published one of the letters received in hopes of bringing the author out of the dark. It worked.

After Thompson had given up Opium, he began to write poetry. One of his most noted works is called “The Hound of Heaven”:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Up vistaed hopes I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase,

And unperturbèd pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat — and a voice beat

More instant than the Feet —

“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”

From here he unwraps this beautiful story and ends with these lines:

But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.

All which thy child’s mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home :

Rise, clasp My hand, and come !”

Halts by me that footfall :

Is my gloom, after all,

Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?

“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,

I am He Whom thou seekest !

Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me.”

(Entire Poem)

Skeptical Reaction

God has reached out to all of us at some point in our lives, chasing us until we have found rest with him. Yet there have still been those who have constantly “out-run God.” They’ll look at the Divine and reject it without a second thought. These modern skeptics end up being great track runners. If God gives them 100 reasons to believe in Him, they’ll want 101. Norm Geisler illustrates this:

There was a man who had lost his eyeball in a terrible accident. After a lot of prayer, this man was healed-he could see, even though he had no physical eyeball. Nevertheless, after this experiment of grandeur someone quipped, “well that just goes to show you that you don’t need an eye to see!”

What is it going to take for you to yield in this long chase, finally letting the bloodhounds of God finally catch up to you? I leave you with the words of King David:

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

-Psalm 139:7-8

~ by johnfoxe on July 30, 2008.