This week we were going through the books of Timothy.
1 Timothy 6:11 -> "But as for you, O man of God, flee these things [Paul was previously talking about false doctrine and the love of money]. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness."
2 Timothy 2:22 -> "So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."
These two verses really struck me because they use both the words 'flee' and 'pursue'. Then, I realized that almost every time, if not every time, the word 'flee' is used in the NT, it is paired with 'pursue', or something similiar. This indicates that every time we are to flee from something, we're supposed to be pursuing something.
Now, this was my question: what does it mean to flee? What does it mean to pursue? Fleeing is essentially running for your dear life! Pursuing is running towards something as fast as you can, in the hopes of capturing something. I think of my dog, Duke, running after the cars that drive down my road, trying to bite their tires.
One thing I've noticed about humans, myself included no doubt, is that we often just avoid the things we should be fleeing from. But avoidance just implies that it's still available for us if we want it. Fleeing means that it should be no where near us.
Another thing is that, although we might understand the 'fleeing' thing, what do we pursue? Do we really end up pursuing righteousness? Faith? Love? Peace? Purity? Or do we end up trying to push the 'line' as far as we can, as long as we think it's okay? We may end up attaining self-righteousness.
This really challenged me because my whole life I've always ended up pursuing things other than the One who wants to be pursued. These are the questions I've been immensely challenged with this week: what should I be fleeing from? Am I pursuing something other than God?
Let's make this personal. Since very early on in my life (as in about grade 2), the pursuit of my life has been a good reputation. I've always cared way too much what people think about me. In more ways than one, this pursuit has led to self-destruction, feelings of worthlessness, and doubting that anyone will ever love me. What I've been noticing and accepting more and more in the last year is that I am of immense value to my Creator. He wouldn't have created me otherwise. I am of immense value to the people around me; my family, my friends, and my church family. And it doesn't really matter if I'm not beautiful in everyone's eyes, or if I don't have a boyfriend, or if I have a stutter, because God created me just the way He wanted me. He gave me the body I have for a reason. He gave me the personality I have for a reason. He gave me the stutter I have for a reason. (And I just know that He's got a super unique plan to use it!)
Let go and let God.
