Chasing Rabbits

There is nothing a beagle likes better than trailing rabbits through briar patches. During two different stretches of living in the USA earlier in our marriage, I raised and trained beagles to hunt rabbits. Certainly, any beagle—yes even one that sleeps at the foot of its owner’s bed—instinctively loves to chase rabbits, but the training part is teaching them not to trail and run deer or other varmints.

I loved to plow through the briars and other thick underbrush right behind the dogs in pursuit of the rabbit. Most people think that the rabbit just runs away from the dogs, but the rabbit is predictable—it will run in a large circle and return to the same spot where the dogs jumped it.

Yesterday at the lunch table my wife shared with kids and grandkids that many times while I have been speaking she “shot” rabbits. As she said this, she extended her hand in the “pistol” pose. When I am speaking, I sometimes have the tendency to go off subject and “chase a rabbit.” If Cheryl is present and catches my eye, then she stealthily points the pistol at me and pulls the trigger. I have enjoyed interrupting my clever remarks with a quick laugh and letting the audience know that Cheryl shot the rabbit I was chasing, so I could return to my topic. That usually gets a good chuckle from the audience.

Two different points from this story: First is to point out the similarities between the rabbit and people in how we run around in circles. When we get in a hurry and have “so much to do,” we often stop to catch our breath and discover that we have been busy about those important “to do” things on our list, but we discover that we have not accomplished much at all. We have seemingly been running around in circles.

I have to interject this story to make my point: Two brothers were at a fair. Their parents had given them some money to spend. One of them was a miser while the other could not spend his money fast enough (amazing parallel to our two sons!). The spender told his brother that he had spent all his money and needed to borrow some money from his brother. The saver brother asked him what he wanted to do with the money, and the spender said that he wanted to ride the merry-go-round one more time. The saver reluctantly gave his brother some money for the ride. The saver waited patiently for the ride to finish. When his brother exited the ride, he said, “Look at you. You spent all you had. You’ve been going round in circles. You got off where you got on, and you ain’t been nowhere yet!” Unfortunately, this is the life story of many people.

Second point: God calls us to specific things to do with our lives. Granted, some of us are called to do the same career for all our lives while others are called to work in several types of jobs during our lives. However, many people change jobs because they are not walking with the Lord and cannot find peace with their vocation. They are chasing rabbits instead of staying focused on what the Lord wants them to do.

“So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.” (2 Peter 1:10 NLT)