Chasing ‘Fake’ Joy!

TheDiscipleMD

Theodore Tuttle, in a talk entitled”The Things That Matter Most,” said:

“Some years ago, I read an editorial in the Deseret News entitled “The Mechanical Rabbit.” I quote:

“Most of our readers must have smiled the other day when they read of the greyhounds in Britain who don’t know a rabbit when they see one. So long had they chased a mechanical rabbit around the racetrack, that when a real rabbit bounded across the track, the dogs didn’t give it a second look.

“Stupid, eh? But sad too, this perverting of the natural instincts. …
“We chase mechanical rabbits, too. “We chase paychecks, and don’t give a second look to the glint of the rising sun on a snow-topped peak. “We chase our way through the appointments of a crowded desk calendar, and fail to take time to chat with the next-door neighbor or to drop in on a sick friend. “We chase social pleasures on a glittering noisy treadmill—and ignore the privilege of a quiet hour telling bedtime stories to an innocent-eyed child. “We chase prestige and wealth, and don’t recognize the real opportunities for joy that cross our paths. …”

Wordsworth said words appropriate to this condition:
“The world is too much with us: late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”

“Race on, you poor, blind over-civilized hounds. You’ll never catch your rabbit until you learn to recognize a genuine one. “But, you’ll have company in your race; the company of unnumbered men who’ll never catch the joy they chase until they, too, learn to recognize a genuine one.”

This points up our challenge: See “that the things that matter most … are not at the mercy of things that matter least.” (Ashley Montague.) (GC talk by A. Theodore Tuttle, Oct 1971).

Let us be careful that in a time when ‘fake’ is presented as ‘real’ that we don’t find ourselves chasing the ‘fake’ joy of the world, while losing out on the ‘real’ joy that can be found in the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.