Hound of Heaven

Excerpts from the Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson. The Hound representing God is chasing Thompson who is running away, not realizing the desire he is seeking is what he is running away from. He tethers his life to thing after thing til finally he is wasted and face down, which is when the hound finally catches up with him. Anything that keeps you from God, is betraying you.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him down the arches of the years;
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase
And unpreturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”
….
“Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.”
….
“Lo naught contents thee, who content’st not Me.”
….

Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
“And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou flyest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing,
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught” (He said),
“And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited—
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home;
Rise clasp my hand, and come!”

Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He, Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”

--Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven”