"Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow."
- Aesop, 'The Dog and the Shadow'
In Aesop's fable 'the Dog and the Shadow', a dog with meat in its mouth crosses over a brook on a bridge. While crossing, he sees his own shadow, and, thinking that he's seeing another dog with meat in its mouth, he attempts to snatch the meat from its mouth. In trying to get the shadow meat, he drops his real meat into the brook and loses it. Bummer.
As in all of Aesop's best teaching fables, there's a biting irony here. Our greed and discontent can end up robbing us of the real and present good that we actually possess (or, at the very least, our enjoyment of it). I've been struck recently about how easy this has been for me to do in terms of the Gospel of Jesus and His kingdom. We who have received the wondrous and life-changing gifts of Jesus and His kingdom life (eternal in both quality and quantity) have what we really want and what we really need. We have what is really, really good and absolutely real. It is also true of us that we who have been made new inwardly still have eyes and ears of flesh. We see other things that we want and seem to need. We see the shadows of earthly pleasures, preoccupations and distractions.
The terrible trouble comes for us when we try to have both the substance and the shadow. Our fable dog would have been fine if it thought the shadow was real but contentedly said to itself, "How nice for that dog - it has a good meal, too." Instead, it thought that it ought to have the other dog's meal as well. "Why shouldn't I have two meals and that dog have none?" (This dog sounds startlingly like my sinful nature that's still lurking about within me). You see, the trouble wasn't that the shadow was there, but that the dog couldn't let it alone. Our trouble isn't that distractions exist or that we can see things that compete for our devotion or attention. No, the trouble is that we just won't let them be.
Whether as individual disciples of Jesus or as communities of disciples, we have to be decidedly content with the all-sufficient and perfectly satisfying kingdom reality of God. We won't be without enjoyments in this life, but neither will we be ruled by them. We'll hold firmly to the true treasure of life with God and fellowship (i.e. sharing and camaraderie) with Jesus.
C.S. Lewis saw it clearly when he wrote:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (from 'The Weight of Glory')
We are only in danger when by sight we lower our standards and pursue a shadowy substitute for the real treasure we're meant to possess. God's present yet eternal kingdom is the real treasure, (though it can seem the more shadowy at the moment), and the one who promises it will deliver it to those who trust Him. Yet, we must seek it. We must pursue it.
We'll have to lose out on some things to gain the kingdom, but, let's be honest, walking passed a shadow is a small price to pay for a meal of real meat. Or, to put it Scripturally: "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Corinthians 4:17 NIV).
