The Pursuit of God

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The Pursuit of God

What is the goal of this Christian mystical way? What is it that mystics like Tozer sought? The answer is genuine meeting with God, and more than that—meeting that matures into a mysterious oneness with God, made possible by Christ through his Spirit. If we probe further, we will see that such “mystic, sweet communion” moves in two directions—from God to us, and us back to God. It becomes a reciprocating dance of mutual delight. As Augustine famously observed, we were made for this. It is a foretaste of our future heavenly participation in the life of the Trinity itself. The wonder is that glimmers or foretastes of such a future can be experienced right here and now. That is the joyful testimony of Tozer and indeed of all the Christian mystics. It is easy to criticize books for what they fail to mention. We can readily acknowledge that The Pursuit of God is thin on practical strategies for cultivating a closer walk with God. It does not cover the spiritual disciplines, for example, or address our need for supportive community in order to grow, or explain how to deal with those dark nights of the soul when God seems absent from us in our loneliness or suffering. We could go on, but the point should be clear. Discerning readers will receive Tozer’s wisdom with gratitude, but not treat The Pursuit of God as the last word on Christian spirituality or in any sense sufficient by itself. It was never meant to serve as more than a simple pointer to the wider resources and greater riches of the Christian spiritual tradition. Some authors do not so much deliver information as stir up holy envy in their readers. Envy makes us want what others have. Holy envy is a good kind of envy. The intent of writers like Tozer is less to explain everything to