The Cheetah’s Chase: When Righteousness is the Prize and Peace the Promise
My friends, from my home here in Pretoria, Akasia, I watch the sun rise over the red earth of the Highveld. I see the bustling minibuses, the hawkers preparing their stalls, the schoolchildren in their uniforms. I feel the pulse of this nation—a rhythm of immense beauty and profound pain. As we celebrated 30 years of democracy, we also held a vigil for the soul of our country. We have the constitutional architecture of a just society, yet we walk daily through valleys shadowed by violence, poverty, and a corruption that has become a national noun.
In such a world, a world where “femicide” and “rage bait” compete for our attention and our children still face the indignity of pit latrines, what does it mean to “chase righteousness”?. Is it a soft, spiritual sentiment for Sunday mornings? A private moral checklist? No. I tell you, it is the most urgent, practical, and intellectually robust pursuit of our age. It is the focused, all-consuming hunt of the cheetah, and the prize at the end is nothing less than the peace that eludes us—the personal shalom, the communal Ubuntu, the national justice we crave.
Let us define our terms with biblical precision. Righteousness (tsedeq in Hebrew, dikaiosynÄ“ in Greek) is not mere moralism. It is a state of being rightly aligned. It is a heart, a community, a nation calibrated to God’s standard of justice, holiness, and covenant love. It is relational, it is active, and it is public. And pursuit? It is radaph—to chase, to persecute, to run ardently after. This is no passive hope. It is the determined, strategic, wearying-yet-relentless effort of the hunter who knows the value of his quarry.
The Crooked Path and the Straight Spear: A South African Parable
Picture, if you will, two young men from Soshanguve. Both are gifted. Both are tired of the lack. One, let’s call him Vusi, sees the quick money in the crooked path. A little corruption here, a compromised deal there, aligning with systems of exploitation that promise fast cars and flashy clothes. It’s the path of the “tenderpreneur,” of political rhetoric that scapegoats the foreigner for our own failures. It is a winding, exhausting road. As our text says, “the crooked path tires the walker and never reaches the village.” Vusi may gain the world, but his soul is fatigued, his conscience is a warzone, and he lives behind ever-higher walls, never finding the true village of community and peace.
The other, Thabang, chooses the path of the straight spear. He gets his qualifications, yes, but he does so with integrity. He starts a small business and pays his workers justly. He mentors young boys on his street, showing them a different model of manhood than the one that fuels our grievous statistics of violence against women and children. He votes not for the patron with empty promises, but for the principle of justice. His path is straighter, harder in the short term, and often opposed. But he sleeps at night. He has dignity. He builds, little by little, a “village” of trust around him. He is chasing righteousness.
This is the choice before us, South Africa. We have tried the crooked paths of state capture, of xenophobia, of neoliberal capitalism that enriches a few while millions of children live in severe food poverty. We are a nation tired. The walk has fatigued us. Where is the village of “a better life for all”?
The Unseen Fence: Righteousness as Practical Apologetics
“Your commitment to what is right builds an invisible fence of favour around your life.” This is not a magic charm. It is the logical, observable consequence of living in alignment with the grain of the universe, which is the character of God.
· Logical Precision: Let me structure this as a simple syllogism.
· Major Premise: God’s moral law (righteousness) is designed for human flourishing (Deuteronomy 10:13).
· Minor Premise: A person or community consistently aligns their actions with this moral law (pursues righteousness).
· Conclusion: Therefore, that person or community will increasingly experience the flourishing (favour, peace) inherent to that design, even amidst external hardship.
A common objection is, “But I see wicked people prosper!” Indeed. Yet, examine that prosperity. Is it peace, or is it the anxious guarding of ill-gotten gain? Is it joy, or is it the temporary thrill of acquisition? The “fence of favour” is not primarily material; it is the integrity that allows you to look your child in the eye, the courage that lets you speak truth to power, the generosity that connects you to your neighbour—the very generosity for which South Africans were recently named the most generous people on earth. That is a formidable fence. It is the Ubuntu that no criminal can easily steal.
The Great Ancestor and the Philosopher King: The Person of Our Pursuit
Here, we must root our chase in the One who is Righteousness incarnate. For the African Christian, Jesus Christ is not a distant European figure. He is the Great Ancestor (Nkulu). Consider the traits: An ancestor is a mediator, a guardian of tradition and ethics, a companion on life’s journey who has gone before. Does not Christ, the “firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:18), perfectly fulfill this? He is the ultimate Mediator, the guardian of God’s righteous tradition, the one who walks with us through every valley. To chase righteousness is to follow in the footsteps of our Great Ancestor, Jesus.
But He is also the Ideal Philosopher. In a world of competing ideologies—of critical theory, of wokeism, of militant secularism and its claim that Christian holidays are mere “privilege”—we need more than sentiment. We need a foundation for thought. Jesus provides this. He did not just teach about truth; He said, “I am…the truth” (John 14:6). His Sermon on the Mount is the most profound philosophical treatise on human ethics ever delivered. He invites us not to a blind faith, but to a tested faith: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). The chase for righteousness is, therefore, a rational commitment to the worldview of the smartest, most virtuous man who ever lived.
The Prophetic Confrontation: Dismantling the Altars of Injustice
This chase demands we sound the alarm against error. We must prophetically confront the false theologies that plague us.
· The Theology of Heritage without Righteousness: We are called to “Reimagine our heritage”. But heritage worn as a costume at a cultural day, while we neglect the righteous demands of that heritage, is a farce. True African heritage, under Christ, demands we confront the heresy of silence in the face of gender-based violence. It is un-African to harm the mothers and daughters of our nation. A heritage celebration that does not actively work to end the war on women and girls is a hollow performance.
· The Theology of Liberation without Righteousness: Black Theology of Liberation rightly raged against apartheid’s sin. But in our era, it must evolve. Liberation that is not undergirded by personal and corporate righteousness becomes just another cycle of power-seeking. It must now confront the “economic apartheid” within our own communities—the black elite who exploit the black poor, the corruption that steals from the very R10 billion meant to feed hungry schoolchildren. The chase for righteousness is the chase for true liberation, economic and spiritual.
· The Theology of Comfort without Cost: A gospel that only promises blessing while refusing to name the sin that breaks blessing is a false gospel. It attracts with talent, with charismatic showmanship. But “God’s blessing is not attracted to talent, but to obedience.” The obedient, often costly chase for righteousness is what builds the invisible fence.
The Call to the Chase: Where Your Feet Hit the Street
So, how do we run? This is not abstract. Your chase begins where your feet hit the street.
1. In Your Home: Pursue righteous relationships. Break the cycle of violence. Honour your spouse. Teach your children the way of the straight spear. Let your home be a mini-village of peace.
2. In Your Community: Champion the marginalised. Befriend the foreigner amidst the xenophobic rhetoric. Support the local school, advocate for the eradication of pit latrines. Let your generosity be active, not just sentimental.
3. In Your Vocation: Do your work with excellence and integrity. Be the righteous business owner, the honest civil servant, the teacher who goes the extra mile. Build a fence of favour around your enterprise.
4. In Your Nation: Hold to a righteous political vision. Reject the politics of fear and scapegoating. Demand accountability not with violent rage, but with the relentless, disciplined pursuit of justice.
The End of the Hunt
The chase is long. You will grow weary. You will see cheetahs on crooked paths seeming to outpace you. But remember the prize: “the prize is peace itself.” Not the world’s peace, but the peace of Christ—a peace that steadies your heart when the storms of load-shedding or political turmoil rage, a peace that allows you to be a healer in a hurting land.
Therefore, reason itself, illuminated by Scripture and confirmed in our deepest longings for a just society, compels us to acknowledge that the only logical, sustainable, and hope-filled pursuit for a South African today is the relentless, focused, obedient chase for righteousness. It is the path of the straight spear.
Start your hunt today. Align your heart, your home, your hands with God’s good standard. And as you do, watch. Watch as provision finds you. Watch as strength renews you. Watch as God builds that invisible, unshakable fence of His favour around your life, and through you, around this nation we love.
For in the end, the righteous cheetah does not just catch its prey; it feeds the pride, and ensures the survival of the village. Run, beloved. Run. The prize is waiting.
https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/the-hunt-for-righteousness/id1506692775?i=1000743014742
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