When we were first introduced to Pogo one of the things that fascinated me about him was his intense focus on chasing things. Throw anything - sticks, rocks, a ball, any of his toys - and he will chase it down and bring it back to you. He has exceptional mouth-eye coordination - he can catch things coming over his shoulder, or while he is spinning around. Every morning before heading off to work he wants his Frisbee time (he also wants it when we come home for lunch or when we quit work for the day.) One of his weaknesses however is that he can be easily distracted, - on a day like today when the sun is shining and few clouds in the sky he often gets sidetracked by the shadow of the Frisbee flying overhead. In the afternoon when the sun is getting lower in the sky the Frisbee can be right over his head but he is focused on the shadow 20 feet away. He misses the real thing because he is chasing the shadow.
When I was younger I had the dream of being a pitcher in little league. Unfortunately I was never good at it. I was told once that in order to improve my accuracy I needed to watch the ball into the glove. I needed to block out all the distractions from my peripheral vision and focus on the target. The concept was that what I looked at is what I would hit. While that approach did not make me a good pitcher, I have watched others use the technique to become very accurate.
It is easy in life to get distracted by the shadows, things that we think we see that aren't really there. If we focus on the shadows we often miss the blessings God has in store for us. Paul exhorts us in Hebrews 12:2 to "keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." In Hebrews 11 he recounts how Abraham was willing to leave everything because he had his eye fixed on something better. How better would our lives be if we learned to stop chasing shadows and keep our eyes on Jesus.
