The Breather (by Billy Collins)

Just as in the horror movies
when someone discovers tht the phone calls
are coming from inside the house

so too, I realized
that our tender overlapping
has been taking place only inside me.

All that sweetness, the love and desire-
it's just been me dialing myself
then following the ringer to another room

to find no one on the line
well, sometimes a little breathing
but more often than not, nothing.

To think that ll this time_
which would include the boat rides,
the airport embraces, and all the drinks-

it's been only me and the two telephones,
the one on the wall in the kitchen
and the extension in the darkened guest room upstairs.

on being pursued

Pursuit. How can one word mean so much? We look around us in search of a pursuer and somehow become the pursued.

Now, what does it mean to be pursued? It means to wait. To find a patience of spirit and heart that can be at peace. We want to grasp after things, after people, and the result is that what we are holding so tightly begins to slip through our fingers. I want so badly to able to let go. Of this relationship. Of that conversation. Of present circumstance.

To get outside of our daily lives and into the truth of God's love for us we have to leave the room for Him to pursue us.

I was staring up at a sycamore tree this morning and heard Him say to my response, "What should I do?"

"Let yourself be pursued by me."

Our Lord is the one romancer in this life whose love will never change or fade. It is a rock on which we can store our trust, our dreams, and our fears. Imagine having a conversation with God just like you're conversing with a loved one. Do they enjoy your humor, listen to your heartache, and laugh in your joy? Is there hope found in the fact that another can relate to and appreciate you?

The same is true with a God who never forgets, who loves us despite our sin and in sight of our weakness. He will be faithful to laugh, cry, and rejoice with us. Do you ever feel like a song is filling you up, brimming over and spilling out from a place you do not know? Do you see circumstances collide and twist to become a tapestry of His love?

Jesus didn't come in to this world to leave us bound to sin and death. He came to set us free from our fears, to release the hold this world has on us. In the process of letting go of what we cling to, God begins his pursuit of our hearts.

It is a dance. A twirling, glorious journey in His arms. We step together through danger and fear, through darkness and pain, through deep waters and shallow tides, through forrest and ocean, through dessert and mountainside. The journey is one which has no clear beginning or end but weaves through circumstance bring a steadfast peace and joy in the knowledge that we are His.

Oh, to only have a heart fully ready to be pursued by our God!