The Great Chase
My dog loves to chase squirrels. She will run from window to window in our house looking to see if any of them dare to set foot in the backyard. Whenever one does, she races to the back door barking to go out. And then off they go, running and chasing until the squirrel jumps up the tree. It’s a pretty fun little game to watch and quite comical to see Molly (the dog) circling our tree waiting in vain for a squirrel that just springs from one tree to the other, 50 feet overhead. It was a great game to watch until the other day when Molly caught a squirrel. Either the poor thing was a little slow on the go or just young; whatever it was, he failed to jump up the tree and instead just kept running around it in circles. Silly Molly was so shocked when she grabbed it that she didn’t know what to do! They tussled for a few seconds then the race began again. This happened three times before the squirrel finally limped up the tree. Neither Molly or the squirrel were really hurt, but I started thinking, this is what it looks like when we “chase” sin.
Now I realize we don’t enter life deciding that we are going to run after sin, it’s just something that grows over time. At the first party I ever went to, I didn’t envision myself a financially ruined alcoholic 15 years later. If I had, I never would have had that amaretto and Coke! Like Molly, we quite innocently start looking for squirrels; they’re cute, fast, and don’t look especially dangerous. But squirrels have teeth and nails, like sin what looks fun can suddenly turn painful and harmful with a simple tail twitch. And now what was once a fun little chase is now attacking us. If you ever hear people talk about sexual sins, almost all say it started with a glance that they then refused to look away from; the chase began. Think about the first time you might have gossiped, you knew it probably wasn’t all true, but it was juicy excitement and nobody would ever really believe it. Would they? The excitement of the run takes over. Then all too suddenly you “catch” the sin, or maybe it catches you, at this point it’s so blurred that you might not know. Like Molly, suddenly we are caught with our sin and unable to extract ourselves from it; we get loose and catch it (or get caught) again and again hopelessly stuck in a now very un-fun and soul crushing game. Proverbs 5:4-5 (TPT) states, “For the sting of your sin will pierce your soul like a sword. She will ruin, drag you down to death, and lead you straight to hell.”
So how do we get out of the endless cycle? Well for one, the opportunity to sin won’t go away; you will have to make decisions to not chase it. I can speak from experience that mistakes will happen; I was merrily on my new Jesus path one day when Bam! out of nowhere I suddenly found myself in the gossip chase again! At that point I had to decide that I would not live my life by talking about others. It took some work; but out of the circle I finally went. One thing I love about God is that He wants to do life with us, the pretty and the ugly; He delights in our progress and even more, He is with us every step of the way. Psalms 18:19 (TPT), “His love broke open the way and he brought me into a broad place. He rescued me-because his delight is in me!” So we have to make the decision to stop chasing the sin, and when we make a mistake we own it and step out of the cycle again. No matter how many times, we decide to leave the run regardless of how cute the “squirrel” looks again.
Deciding to stop the sin cycle is secondary to making the decision to begin a relationship with God. Telling myself I would quit gossiping, hating, or any of the other sins I was participating in and not adding God in made me fail every time. A relationship with the Living God is the only way to have any success in leaving sin. The saving power of Jesus’ sacrifice is what covers our sins so we can begin our relationship with God. God loves to empower His children to defeat sin, but the key is to be His children. Colossians 2:14 states, “He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all-our sins, our stained soul-he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved!” That is just the initial starting point though; after we begin our relationship with God, He gives us a new race to be in. So now instead of chasing sin, we are invited to chase Jesus. This is the great race that we have desired all our lives, the chase we were always meant to run; in this race, we are promised that we will “catch” Him!
Now I realize we don’t enter life deciding that we are going to run after sin, it’s just something that grows over time. At the first party I ever went to, I didn’t envision myself a financially ruined alcoholic 15 years later. If I had, I never would have had that amaretto and Coke! Like Molly, we quite innocently start looking for squirrels; they’re cute, fast, and don’t look especially dangerous. But squirrels have teeth and nails, like sin what looks fun can suddenly turn painful and harmful with a simple tail twitch. And now what was once a fun little chase is now attacking us. If you ever hear people talk about sexual sins, almost all say it started with a glance that they then refused to look away from; the chase began. Think about the first time you might have gossiped, you knew it probably wasn’t all true, but it was juicy excitement and nobody would ever really believe it. Would they? The excitement of the run takes over. Then all too suddenly you “catch” the sin, or maybe it catches you, at this point it’s so blurred that you might not know. Like Molly, suddenly we are caught with our sin and unable to extract ourselves from it; we get loose and catch it (or get caught) again and again hopelessly stuck in a now very un-fun and soul crushing game. Proverbs 5:4-5 (TPT) states, “For the sting of your sin will pierce your soul like a sword. She will ruin, drag you down to death, and lead you straight to hell.”So how do we get out of the endless cycle? Well for one, the opportunity to sin won’t go away; you will have to make decisions to not chase it. I can speak from experience that mistakes will happen; I was merrily on my new Jesus path one day when Bam! out of nowhere I suddenly found myself in the gossip chase again! At that point I had to decide that I would not live my life by talking about others. It took some work; but out of the circle I finally went. One thing I love about God is that He wants to do life with us, the pretty and the ugly; He delights in our progress and even more, He is with us every step of the way. Psalms 18:19 (TPT), “His love broke open the way and he brought me into a broad place. He rescued me-because his delight is in me!” So we have to make the decision to stop chasing the sin, and when we make a mistake we own it and step out of the cycle again. No matter how many times, we decide to leave the run regardless of how cute the “squirrel” looks again.
Deciding to stop the sin cycle is secondary to making the decision to begin a relationship with God. Telling myself I would quit gossiping, hating, or any of the other sins I was participating in and not adding God in made me fail every time. A relationship with the Living God is the only way to have any success in leaving sin. The saving power of Jesus’ sacrifice is what covers our sins so we can begin our relationship with God. God loves to empower His children to defeat sin, but the key is to be His children. Colossians 2:14 states, “He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all-our sins, our stained soul-he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved!” That is just the initial starting point though; after we begin our relationship with God, He gives us a new race to be in. So now instead of chasing sin, we are invited to chase Jesus. This is the great race that we have desired all our lives, the chase we were always meant to run; in this race, we are promised that we will “catch” Him!
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