Friday night, Cyndi and I, and our young nephew, Kevin, joined John and Linda at Jim and Judy’s to eat hamburgers and to drool over their new house. It was a great evening of food and conversation, one of those evenings that make you glad you are a grown up. We ate outside on the patio, toured the house and took notes, played with Jim’s horses, and talked through upcoming adult Bible study lesson about Joseph.
After we ate, John and Kevin and I walked with Jim out to the corral to see his three horses. They were very tame; we all spent a lot of time up close with our hands on them, and the horses seemed to enjoy the affection. It was clear that Jim spent a lot of time every day with these horses, riding them and training them and loving them.
John said, “You know, there are so many pursuits people can have to fill up their life and enrich their life. Maybe its horses, or reading, or going to the mountains, or family, or painting, or music.”
I said, “Yeah, too bad that for so many, their pursuit is sitting down to watch TV every night.”
John said, “Why do some people spend so much time and money pursuing a hobby or something they love, but others just settle for the same old thing?”
“Some pursue, some settle. Some people die thirty years before they are buried.”
Later, we talked about watching Jim with his horses, how he put his arms around their neck, had his hands on their head and face and back and belly all the time. It was clear he spent a lot of time doing that, and just as clear the horses loved it. Jim has big thick hands, but they were gentle and loving and tender as he stroked those horses. It was a side of Jim’s personality we had never seen. Cyndi and I have known Jim for 20 years, but realized we hadn’t really known him at all until we saw him with his horses.
I guess we all have a part of our life that most people never see – I’m not even talking about our dark secret parts we try to hide – I’m talking about our pursuits and hobbies that are important to us and help shape us. We may have 20-year friends who enjoy the fruits of our pursuits that show up in our daily life without ever being aware of the pursuits themselves. All these years, I have appreciated Jim without really understanding the impact his hands and horses have on his character. I just enjoyed the results.
I wondered what those pursuits are for me? I would like to think they are reading and writing and running and backpacking and maybe music, but I’m not sure I spend as much time on any of those as Jim spends with his horses. It may be that our heart pursuits are so natural to us we don’t recognize them or appreciate the impact they have on our life and character and personality. Maybe it takes another observer to pick them out?
Sometimes the pursuits of our friends or even our spouse may seem expensive or selfish to us, and indeed they can become self-indulgent escapes from responsibility and life. But those pursuits are so fundamental to character and personality we would lose who we are if we forced those them away. Maybe we even get jealous of the time and money our spouse spends on pursuits, and wish it was spent on us instead. But without those pursuits, we’d be left with a hollowed-out lover who has lost interest.
Psalm 37 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I believe this is a two-way proposition. As we pursue God, he will reward us with the desires of our heart. And as we pursue the desires of our heart, we will find God.
I won’t forget watching Jim’s hands on his horses. Thinking about those affectionate hands loving on those horses is a picture of how I want God to take care of me. In fact, I came home Friday night and put my hands on Lady, our running Labrador, out of appreciation. It was the least I could do.
