The Never-Ending Pursuit

Years ago I was visiting the home of Billy and Ruth Graham when I noticed a strange dog that would chase his tail all day long. At one point, he came to a little embankment, still chasing his tail. I watched him, wanting to see how far this dog would go. He fell down the embankment, which was pretty steep. Then he scurried back up and started chasing his tail again. So I asked Mrs. Graham, “What’s wrong with your dog?”

“He always does that,” she told me.

I returned six months later and didn’t see the dog. So I asked Mrs. Graham about the dog that chases his tail.

“He got it,” she said. “He’s dead.”

A lot of people today are like that dog, chasing after things that will never satisfy. They go around in circles, never making any progress.

James 4:2 says, “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” Note the words, “cannot obtain.” If this verse tells us anything at all, it reminds us three times that the natural human heart is never content. This awful craving for the pleasures of life never stops. It just goes on and on and on. Trying to find satisfaction in the things of this life is like chasing after a mirage. It is always out of your reach. It always will elude you.

James was essentially saying, “You lust. You kill. You fight. You are always reaching. You are always groping. But you are never going to quite have it.”

It is a never-ending pursuit, like the dog chasing his tail.