When I was a boy I had a dog by the name of Jinx. He was a small, white, fluffy beasta Spitz. Spitz dogs are rather unusual. A Spitz is made up of 90 percent hair and 10 percent body and teeth. Jinx had delusions of grandeur. I guess he thought his great amount of hair was a lion's mane. It was not, because if you saw him when he was wet, he was pretty pathetic. There was nothing there, just a little, tiny body with a huge amount of fur. Jinx could appear ferocious, and he did the day he chased the laundry man. I saw all this happen; I was looking out the window. The laundry man drove up to our house. He took the big laundry bag and started for the house. When he got about halfway to the house, Jinx took after him. The laundry man threw the laundry to the winds, headed for the hood of his car, and ascended the hood with alacrity. Jinx, with every hair standing on end, was snarling and walking stiff-legged 'round and 'round the truck, and the man was sitting up there in horror. He stayed there until we rescued him.
What If You Catch WhatYou're Chasing?
By Donald S. Ewing
Galatians 6:7,8 Jinx and I visited a farm one day, and that was an experience for city folks like Jinx and me. I loved going there. The thing I liked to do most was to find eggs that the chickens had laid in the nests they built in the haymow in the barn. As you think about it, you can almost smell the hay, and those of you who have any kind of asthmatic problems will be sneezing momentarily. I do not know what especially appealed to Jinx, but I know what did not. That is what I want to tell you about.
Jinx and I went out to the field with the farmer and his dog to bring in the cows. Jinx watched the farm dog running back and forth, barking, snapping at the heels of the cows. Joining the farm dog, Jinx got behind one cow, barking and snapping at her.
The cow knew a city dog when she heard one, so she stopped and looked down over her shoulder and lowered her big face. Jinx came to a screaming halt. And then to his complete terror, the cow burst forth with an ear-shattering moo. Every bone in that poor dog's body went rigid, and then he took off as fast as he could back into the house. This time Jinx was thoroughly shocked by what he had chased after.
Profound point. I am not just telling you a story for the sake of amusing you. This story has a point. Jinx was not prepared to handle the success of catching what he pursued. That is a very profound point.
Someone once said that many an executive tends to rise to the level, not of his expertise, but of his incompetence. He is frozen at that level. It is a sad thing, but it is quite often true. An executive can be successful in what he is doing, but he is not satisfied because he wants to climb higher and higher on the corporate ladder. He rises until finally he hits the level
where he can no longer handle his job with competence. From then on, he is unhappy and inefficient. Instead of looking forward to further promotions, he begins to worry about being a victim of corporate down-sizing. In short, his persistent pursuit for advancement has ultimately landed him in misery.This whole idea is expressed in some ancient lines that I have jotted down from memory. I think the idea is correct, but I may have missed a word here and there. At any rate, this is how I remember it:
Hounded like a wounded brute,Man with all his earthly loot,
At last is caught by what he chases.
Ultimately every person, no matter who he is, is caught by what he chases. This is one of the great truths of life, a truth that I believe we ought to take seriously.Reap what we sow. Why is this so in the life of every person? Answer: this is what God has decreed. When God says, "This is the way it is," there is no way you or I can escape it. Everyone, sooner or later, is caught by what he chases. Specifically, this is how the Bible puts in it Galatians 6:7:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul is saying there that we shall all reap what we sow; we are caught by what we chase. If the farmer sows one thing in the spring, he cannot expect to have a harvest of something else in the fall. We cannot reverse what we sow. This inevitability should cut to our very hearts and cause us to think seriously about what it is that we are pursuing, what it is that we are pouring out our lives for. Whatever we are selling our soul for is what we are going to get. Be very sure, therefore, that it is worthwhile.Although God guarantees this, it may not always seem to be so. From our vantage point, often a man may strive for success but fail to attain it. An athlete may strain to win and yet he loses. Love is not always requited. I know about that; I have received a "Dear Don" letter. And I imagine many of you have too. To love without being loved in return is a rather common experience among human beings.
But that is not the point. What God guarantees is that the deep-down principle of our motivation will be fulfilled. It will be fulfilled partially in this life, but completely at deatheither in heaven or hell.
Simple logic. These are the only two places that exist beyond the grave. Do not try to pull the two together or deny the existence of either one. Ethics and sound thinking demand that since there is no balancing of the books in this life, there has to be a balance in the hereafter. If you think any other way, you are not thinking logically.
If we want to live like hell, we cannot expect to go to heaven. The basic thrust of our motivational drive is reflective. It bounces back; it comes home to roost. While it becomes eternally fixed at death, even in this life it increasingly shapes the form of our soul, and this shows in the face.
You know people who have hated. They have been negative about life for years and years. If you look at them as they grow old, you will see how all the lines are down. Everything about them sags because their
soul sags.My father did not have a saggy line about him, because he did not think negatively. He thought about the Lord and lived the Lord's way. He lived his whole life seeking the Lord's will. He lived to be ninety-eight and a half, and all the years of his life he lived to the glory of God. That is the way we are supposed to live. And now, my father is living in glory with the Lord Jesus.
Negative example. Samson is a negative illustration of what we are talking about. He was given extraordinary gifts and was raised to a position of honor as a judge of the people. But his basic motivation was so like that of the people today. It was self-indulgence. What he wanted was what pleased him. He saw a woman of the Philistines and she pleased him. He wanted her for a wife, but she was of a pagan race. It was a forbidden relationship.
God has always told his people, "You cannot marry outside the faith" not only in the Old Testament but in the New. Too often today our young people do not consider this, and then they wonder why their marriage has so many problems. The truth is, if you are not walking in the same direction, as the Bible tells us, you cannot walk together.
Samson wanted to marry this pagan girl, and he talked to his parents about it. They tried to dissuade him, but he would not be dissuaded. Finally the principle of his motivation was revealed in what he said to his father: "Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well" (Judges 14:3). The only thing he cared about was being pleased. Is it any wonder then that he died under the rubble of a pagan temple?
Two kinds only. C. S. Lewis said that after all is said and done, there are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "Thy will be done." In other words there are those people who pursue the will of God and those who pursue their own will.
You can have either the glorious will of God, or the miserable, shrunken will that is your own, all cankered and broken and ugly. God guarantees that if you prefer your own will to His will, you are going to get what you want, and what you get is going to be pretty sad. Man is caught by what he chases after.
Jesus puts this another way in Matthew 6:24. He says, "No man can serve two masters." You cannot hold on to both Satan's hand and God's hand. You cannot live as the world lives and also live in God's will. You have to make up your mind.
In that same verse, the Lord continues, "for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." You cannot serve God and anti-God; you have to choose. And since man is caught by what he chases, choose carefully.
The narrow gate. In Matthew 7:13,14, the Lord Jesus warns:
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.Again, there are only two ways, the wide one that leads to destruction and the narrow one that leads to life.There is a rather foolish idea
abroad, which we hear often: All roads lead to the same place; whether you go right or left, you always wind up where you want to go. Not so. When you choose a way, you choose its destination. If you take the road that leads away from God, you will find despair and death. If you take the way that leads to God, you will find abundant life and eternal glory. You must take one way or the other. There are no third, fourth, fifth, sixth ways. Do not listen to the people who say, "It does not matter which way you go."Right after he has told us that we are going to reap what we sow, Paul elaborates in the next verse, Galatians 6:8:
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.Do you recognize it? It says again that man is caught by what he chases. I know I am being repetitious, but I want to beat that into your soul, into your subconscious mind, so you will never forget it. I want you to remember Jinx. I am trying to stick this into the deepest part of your mind so you will never be able to get away from it. I hope it will haunt you until you have settled the issue of what you want to have to catch you, because you are going to be caught, and you are going to be caught by whatever you are pursuing.We have usually thought of Galatians 6:8 as being negative: if you sow wild oats, you are going to have a horrible harvest. That is true. However, it also tells us that if we sow to the Spirit of God, we will reap goodness, abundance, and life everlasting.
It works both ways. God guarantees the positive as well as the negative; and Godís way is good, and Godís way is happy, and Godís will is fulfilling.
Hounded like a wounded brute,Let me ask you: What are you chasing, and are you willing to be caught by it? o
Man with all his earthly loot,
At last is caught by what he chases.The late Dr. Donald S. Ewingís studies are heard on the Trinity Pulpit radio program. For information, write to the Trinity Pulpit Trust, Box 1660, Dover, NH 03821.
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