I struggle to find words to answer the question “Who is Jesus?” because my finite vocabulary and comprehension would not do it justice. Jesus is all the words I do not have words for. As I continue to work on my relationship with Jesus, I have realized He is the only thing that can satisfy. Jesus has meant different things to me in different seasons of my life. In this season, Jesus has done and will continue to do whatever it takes to have my attention.
Jesus is in furious pursuit of my heart.
Furious sounds like an intense word; and it is. Something furious is something to be taken seriously. And Jesus’ pursuit of me is something to be taken seriously—it’s furious and unrelenting. Through His constant pursuit of my heart Jesus is reclaiming what He created. So often, I get caught up in feeling as though I don’t deserve what Jesus has done and is doing for me. And I don’t. I’ve talked about this before. Nevertheless, Jesus is doing this for all people right now, not just for me. His infinite love and the incomprehensibility of the call makes this furious pursuit even more undeserving.
In Mark 1:17, Jesus calls the disciples to follow Him. The next verse shows them dropping their nets and following Him. For these men, the nets signified their jobs—what they did for income and to support their families. In all honesty, I don’t think I could do that. I feel like I would have to tie up loose ends, pack an overnight bag, and prepare for what “Follow me” means. But the disciples did not have that opportunity, nor did they take it. Deep down, I think they knew about this furious pursuit. Jesus intrigued them. They dropped everything, and followed His calling. They were all in.
Thinking through what the disciples did two thousand years ago pushes me out of my comfort zone. It pushes me to a deeper knowledge and gratitude for the life I have been given through Christ. It pushes me to follow Jesus even more wholeheartedly—to furiously pursue Jesus the way He is pursuing me. I wonder what this generation would look like if we began to live outside the bounds of comfort and dropped the nets in our lives to follow Jesus. I believe once this begins to happen, the furious pursuit will become more real to us, radically changing our actions and our lives.
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