Pursuing with Those, R.Y.W.

My experience of the local churches is one of a continuous pursuit of Christ with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Timothy 2:22). My first impression of the people in the church in Irvine is that they are seekers and pursuers. Not only so, each one pursues with a pure heart, a single heart without mixture, a heart that sees only the Lord and takes the Lord as the unique goal (2 Timothy 2:22, 1 Timothy 1:5). In the world everyone is pursuing material wealth. I was impressed to see this group of people pursuing and loving only Christ. Above all, many of these seeking Christians were young people, college students like me. Because of their pursuit of Christ and their love for Christ, I was drawn to them and began to pursue and love Christ with them.

I can testify that my college years were spent in a most profitable way and I was preserved from many negative things. There is a hymn which encapsulates my experience really well:

Though very great is all the world,

And very small is your heart,

Yet the great world with all its wealth

Never can fill your small heart.

If you have Christ, you have all joys;

Without this Christ, only pains;

Where there is Christ there morning is;

Where He is not, night remains. (Hymns, #1025)

Only Christ can fill the seeking and the emptiness in my heart. I look back to my college years and have no regrets that they were filled with the pursuit of Christ with fellow seekers in the local church. My heart is filled and satisfied and my life is meaningful.